WorldWide Drilling Resource® The Un-Comfort Zone II by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. A Road Rage Retrospective ~ I was lucky to escape and learned a valuable lesson. When I was 20 years old, I was driving down a road just outside of Atlanta, and came to a sharp curve to the right. At that moment, the car behind me chose to pass. As he pulled parallel to my car, another car coming from the opposite direction saw the passing car in his lane and pulled into mine. I was forced to drive off the road and onto the shoulder to avoid a head-on collision. There was a steep ditch to the right of the shoulder, and if I’d been forced to drive any further to my right, my car would’ve flipped over into the ditch. After the car passed, I was able to pull back onto the road and continue my journey, but I was shaking with adrenaline from my near death experience. Then, a half-mile down the road, I came to a red light. The guy who passed me was in the left turn lane. I was going straight, so when I stopped we were side by side. I was furious; he had gained nothing by nearly causing my death. He looked at me, so I flipped him off. He started screaming at me and shaking his fist. So, I rolled my window down and yelled back, “You crazy #$%@&, you nearly killed me passing me on that curve and look, it got you nowhere!” He screamed some profanities back at me, and I rolled my window back up. I thought that was the end of it. Then the light changed to green, and I pulled forward, but no, the guy pulled in behind me and rammed my rear bumper. This freaked me out, so I floored it. Within moments I was driving 90 miles an hour on a winding rural road. Worse, I couldn’t shake him. I knew I needed to turn somewhere, but there were no roads I could go down. Then I saw a church coming up on my right. I could see it had two entrances, so I passed the first then quickly pulled into the second. The man followed, but I thought if I could pull back out of the first entrance and go back the way I had come, it would take me to a more populated area where I could take refuge among the gas stations and stores I’d noticed at the last traffic light. I thought maybe he’d leave me alone if I pulled into a busy store parking lot. Or maybe I could find a fire or police station to go for safety. In my panic, I missed the first entrance and found myself in a lower parking lot that only had one way in and out. The man realized he had me trapped and parked his car sideways to block me in. At that point, I was so full of adrenaline, fear, and fury, I threw open my door, leapt out of my car, raised my fists, and yelled at him, “What do you want? You wanna fight? Well come on, I’ll fight you!” I was so pumped up I thought I could’ve taken anyone in that moment. He got out of his car and pointed a revolver at me across the roof of his car. That scared the heck out of me, and I dove head first back into my car. Keeping my head down, I slammed the shifter into first gear and drove away from him across the parking lot and into the woods beyond. As I drove through the woods, dodging trees and hoping I wouldn’t get stuck, I noticed the man was following me into the woods. I then saw an opening in the woods that led back up to the street. I quickly pulled into the street turning hard to the left (as I had intended to do from the first church entrance), my tire squealing and smoking, as I literally burned rubber from the rear wheel drive of my sports car, just ahead of a long stream of traffic. The man with the gun was too far behind me to get out and I was able to get away. I quickly turned off that road, and then took turn after turn after turn, until I was sure he’d never find me. Four decades ago when this happened, I was experiencing peak levels of testosterone; my brain's prefrontal cortex was five years from being fully formed and giving me a sense of my own vulnerability; and the term Road Rage had yet to be coined. Nevertheless, I learned a valuable lesson that day - when I faced the possibility of being shot with a gun - to control my temper, and to never again aggravate a potential psychopath on the road. Robert Robert is an innovation/change speaker, author, and consultant. He works with companies that want to be more competitive through innovation and with people who want to think more creatively. Contact him via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com is a unique associa LGWA LGWA.org WA a Ground W Louisiana Association (LG ine with you! r “School speakers ry hard to on Points only opnd Trade W for the rg n should: tion pro- ) ter WA.org Onl vailable Forms A https://LG of Hard Knocks” knowledge who are willing to share thei bring you new and exciting This association works ve for Louisiana. portunity to obtain Educati Contractors, this is your . Show Convention a 2023 LGWA Remember to plan NO WA.o ervices CENEPS = LG S j roducts P j quipment E j echniques ew T N j ducation E j amaraderie C j moting what every associatio
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