My mentor/inspiration text today comes from a middle school student in Virginia and you can read her work here.
Take a minute and check out the link, please!
I wish I wrote this well many days!
Today I couldn’t tell where you were going.
Today I was supposed to just travel from here to there.
Today I was supposed to just take a simple trip that I’ve made before.
I can tell you what, it isn’t easy and not my usual fare.
So, all I can say is,
“Ummm, what’s going on with turn signals?”
Today I watched you slow down, speed up and slow down again.
Today I was supposed to just travel from here to there.
Today I was supposed to catch up on listening to my Voxer posts.
I can tell you what, it isn’t easy and not my usual fare.
So, all I can say is,
“Ummm, what’s going on with turn signals?”
Weaving in,
Slowing there,
I’m supposed to be in my lane cruising,
I can tell you what,
it isn’t easy and not my usual fare.
So, all I can say is,
“Ummm, what’s going on with turn signals?”
How do you respond to situations you cannot change?
With dignity? With grace?
In this case, with road rage?
So many choices I can make when I decide HOW to respond!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this daily forum each March. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
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Awesome mentor text! Blinkers, why don’t they use them? Love your repetition to drive your point home. When I have no way to change a situation, I accept it with resignation.
That was my thought. Absolutely gorgeous mentor text.
I don’t understand why people don’t use turn signals. No fingers free to move them??? Such an easy courtesy in my mind.
Thanks for sharing that mentor text. Your twist on it speaks to my heart. I just don’t understand why some people don’t use their blinkers.
Oh, Adrienne. Today I have over two hours on the same road. I’m going to count the # of using blinkers and not using blinkers. Now I need the numbers . . . LOL! Feel free to go back and leave a comment for that young author. She’s amazing!
Two hours on the same road sounds awful! I, too, sat in terrible traffic yesterday in the snow so I know how it feels.
One of my pet peeves are people who don’t use turn signals. That and people who make left turns when the light first turns green (and there’s no arrow). That happened all of the time when I lived in RI. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.
I’ve not seen the left turn issue – I try to plan for no left turns in my driving. Just hate them.
Actually, it’s 4 lanes of traffic so it moves well most of the time and I usually wait to see what the flow of traffic is before I speed up. However, the ones who cut in and out all the time without any signals are hazardous! ❤
You’d like NJ. They have jug handles, which means you don’t have to make true left turns!
I can’t help but think – It’s not about the action, but the reaction! Yes, I get angry when drivers cut in front of me! It’s not that hard to use them.
Leigh Anne,
Yes the reaction – I should be able to control that. But I can’t predict reliability without the turn signals. Maybe if “siri” could just turn them on with a verbal command . . . ???
I like how you used the mentor text to create your own. The questions in the end nudge thinking. Your last line gives an answer how to respond – approach situations like these with curiosity.
Thanks, Terje!
I LOVE mentor texts!!! ❤
Great questions: How do you respond to situations you cannot change? A slice to get us pondering. The opening neon sign is great, Fran.
Thanks, Carol. It was so much fun to borrow a format! Several topics came to mind but this was at the top of my current pet peeves!
For me one of the only things worse than not using a turn signal is someone who turns it on and forgets is on. I keep waiting for the car to turn and it never does. I just scratch my head. Great mentor poem.
[…] Yesterday’s post was a poem about drivers using their turn signals (here). […]