真正的成长，从不取决于年龄_大学英语阅读

真正的成长，从不取决于年龄

In the evenings, long after visiting hours ended, I drove myself wearily[24] back to his apartment. This was the part I’d been most terrified about. While my friends had been rushing to get their licenses at 16, I’d pushed it off for years—and then I failed my road test three times. I’m rarely behind a wheel, but now I was forced by circumstance to chauffeur[25] myself around an unfamiliar place. I avoided alluding to my driving phobia that week because I didn’t want to worry my dad.[26] But in true fatherly form, even chained to a hospital bed by an IV stand, he fired up his laptop to Google non-highway directions to the apartment, researched which route would be the fastest and most direct, and carefully wrote everything down on the back of a tea-stained hospital menu.[27] Then he painstakingly[28] explained the area to me, referenced various landmarks I’d pass along the way, told me where the nearest grocery stores and restaurants were, and sent me off.

I surprised myself. Not only did I never get lost that week, but I was impressed by how comfortable I became behind the wheel. I perfected the art of parking within the lines; when cleaning snow off the car, I deduced[29] by trial and error that it’s best to push ice away from you (not onto you); I marveled as the defogger[30] actually did what it was supposed to; I learned you should drive slowly when it’s snowing—things most people discover when they’re half my age.