#Ask Jaquie

You can learn a lot about life just by sitting in traffic,

Ithink I must be the only person in the whole wide world to not own a Fitbit. I do want one but I’m worried it’ll just make me feel bad about my slug life. (Very similar to thug life)

I know I’ll feel guilty if I’ve not clocked the right amount of steps by the end of the day, and instead of resting on the couch after my hard day of sitting in front of the computer, I’ll be jogging on the spot trying to pretend to myself I’m an athlete.

Maybe I should just go and buy one anyway because it occurred to me this week that I spend way too much time in the car. But not only that, I travel the same handful of roads all the time. Boring. To school, to work, to the supermarket, to the mall, to home, to school, to home, to work. Don’t forget the backwards logic of driving to the gym to exercise and then sit in the car to drive home again.

I see lots of things when I’m driving, and being in a jam gives me time to muse. I have concluded that traffic behaviour can display some metaphors for life.

I panic when there are two streams of traffic that I have to cross into. Do you follow? I worry a gap for me will never appear.

But if I wait and keep telling myself ‘a gap for me will come’ and don’t rush and don’t push, a perfect gap will appear and I’ll drive in easily. It’s like The Secret but for traffic.

But also for life because I’m writing from inside a metaphor. Cos I’m freaky.

Like in life, some of us like passengers, some prefer to travel alone. Both are fine choices.

It’s vital to be aware of other drivers on the road and treat them how you’d like to be treated. That’s Rule No 1 of being an actual person.

We don’t all get to our destination in the same vehicle, some of us will abandon cars all together and forge our own independent path. Perhaps we’ll be free-thinking cyclists.

I suppose the main thing to remember is, whatever you do and however you choose to travel, there will always be detractors. So don’t be put off if you hear someone yell an ill-conceived sexist comment at you as you cycle down the highway of life. Whoever they are, they are probably just being a dick.

I am definitely spending too much time in the car, thinking. I think I will get that Fitbit.

Jaquie Brown writes. I see lots of things when I’m driving, and being in a jam gives me time to muse.