When The Semi Became Less Scary

Last week I was driving down the highway when I passed a semi-truck.

I hate semi-trucks. I hate driving near them, behind them, in front of them, and especially alongside them. They are just big scary monsters that could run me right over if they felt like it. The semi is quite wide too, and I feel like my lane is being overtaken when I drive next to them. Kind of like the scene in Star Wars when they are stuck in the garbage shoot and the walls are slowly closing in on them. I get that feeling.

I usually just drive really fast by them so I don't have to deal with the feeling of being destroyed at sixty miles an hour. I also imagine that being my excuse to the cop that pulls me over. "Yes sir, I was going pretty fast, but did you see that semi that had it in for me? It was going to destroy me so I ran away."

I have a great amount of respect for semi-truck drivers though, because they know the rules of the road, or at least most of them do. I think they are really good drivers in an insufficient vehicle for their skills. One night, I was driving back to school and a semi passed another semi on the highway. The semi wanted to get back into the right lane because they were slowing down traffic. So the semi that got passed flashed their brights when the passing semi had enough room to merge in front of them. I thought it was awesome and have wanted to do the same since.

But last week I saw a semi and I passed it quickly like always. I had enough time though to look inside the passenger side of the semi and to my surprise there was a kid sitting in the seat. I could only assume that is was the drivers son. A son that the driver probably hadn't seen in awhile. Supposedly semi-truck drivers are on the road so much that they don't see their family a lot. Supposedly they get super lonely on the road too. This kid in the passenger side of the semi was all wide-eyed, looking down the road, like he was having a good time. I felt compassion for semi-truck drivers everywhere and my feeling of being destroyed slowly went away.

That is when, to me, the scary monsters of the road became the gentle giants.