It’s not always the easiest thing to own your mistakes. Especially after you’ve been at something like driving for a long time. But sometimes it’s best to accept your follies and learn from them. Like these Reddit users who admit that straight-up rookie driving mistakes aren’t necessarily reserved for rookies. Instead, they’re something to pay mind to and move on, that much a better a driver for having done so. 

Reddit users admit that driving bested them in the best ways early on. And humans sometimes make the same rookie mistakes

From difficulty backing out of spaces to driving up a wrong-way street, these drivers exercised some serious candor. One poster on the Reddit page admitted that reversing out of space was a troubling experience. “I was backing out of a parking space in a parking garage with high curbs and almost took the bumper off the car,” they posted. “I didn’t take the height of the curb or the car into consideration.”

Another poster indicated that LA’s one-way labyrinth was a bit too much to navigate. “I drove up an exit-only ramp of an LA freeway,” the poster admitted. “I mistook it for an on-ramp. It’s hard to describe the frozen terror I felt when I realized there were exiting cars heading right at me.” These kinds of things happen. Especially in a driving landscape like Los Angeles.

It doesn’t just happen here in the USA 

Interestingly enough, an inexperienced driver and military service member weighed in on the Reddit post with the conflict of driving in unfamiliar surroundings. But instead of motoring in LA, this was an American tossed into Okinawa. “Well, I almost killed myself. Driving only a few months, stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan.” Already a recipe for disaster.

“You drive on the opposite side of the roads, and of course, so is the driver’s seat. I was attempting a U-turn to head back to base after getting McDonald’s breakfast for my girl. While making the turn, the orange juice fell over, and I reached down while attempting the turn. I unfortunately ended up wide in the turn, up on the walkway, between the highway and the guardrails.”

In short, the airman ended up running the wayward car into a concrete barrier. Fortunately, while the crash was violent and impactful, the occupants of the car fared well after the crash. But it’s a sobering reminder to respect your surroundings and pay attention while you’re behind the wheel. 

‘You’re gonna make little mistakes like this until the day you die’

Other posters were quick to remind readers that mistakes are, well, human. “You’re gonna make little mistakes like this until the day you die,” the Reddit user posted. “Brief lapses in concentration that you catch, situations where you should have been paying more attention, a moment or two where you have to come to terms with your mortality. It comes standard with operating a half-ton metal box at speeds nature couldn’t produce.”

Another poster commented, “The beauty of driving is that you will always mess up.” I wouldn’t say beauty, but to each their own. “It is just the nature of things. Been driving 35 years and still make mistakes. Thankfully, none of them were serious enough to create an accident, but I learn and still learn.” Now, isn’t that the truth?