For as much as I love being behind the wheel, one of the biggest bummers about driving is the plethora of other drivers seemingly determined to cut you off.

The ones who gun it and dart across five lanes after only casually glancing towards the fast-moving oncoming traffic that you’re part of.

Or the ones who can’t be bothered to signal, so they do a mini-swerve towards your car in an effort to get you to freak out and slow down, thus creating a gap they can duck into… right before they slam on their brakes to dive into that left turn lane they couldn’t bear to pass, naturally.

There are too many scenarios to list, and while they’re aggravating, in reality it’s less about their supposed determination to cut me off and more about their desire to not pass something by.

Interestingly, it’s like this in life sometimes, too, yes? We see something we want to do or someplace we want to do, and we do it a bit recklessly. We do it without the proper amount of regard — for others, as well as for ourselves. We do it because at that moment in time, it’s what we want, but it’s not necessarily what we need.

Reacting can get us onto a different path, get us onto a destructive path or just get us onto a path that we’re not quite ready for yet.

But isn’t it nice to know that if we do find we’ve gone a bit too far or reacted a bit too quickly, we can still make a U-turn?

Just like on a street, passing the initial must-have, must-do, need-it-now moment may buy us just enough time to re-evaluate. We can do a U-turn and cruise back by. If we still want it, we can stop. Or if we’ve stopped prematurely and found that something isn’t what we want after all, the U-turn is our one-way ticket back to sanity.

Tonight I am thankful for the lesson in a U-turn, and for my fellow motorists who reminded of a better way, a more controlled way and a more sane way.