Downside of Self-Disclosure

There is a rumor going around that I’m a bad driver. Weird, right? Since I’ve had barely a ticket (going 5 over doesn’t count, does it?) since high school. That’s been 6 years. 6 YEARS. Plus, it’s notable that 1 of those years was in the NYC suburbs, which may have the craziest drivers in the country. So why this rumor? I fear that I’m to blame.

I have gained a reputation as a story-teller, and many of those stories are about my own goofy life. If I do something funny, or stupid, or absentminded, I don’t mind at all, because it will make for a great story at the next party or family function I attend. I’m not sure how this started, but I guess a few years ago, one particularly funny story at a family get-together was about driving, or cars, or something like that, because now the family always wants to hear a “car story.” I’m happy to oblige, so I dig back into my brain to find something that I can make into a fun story.

Hmm, well, I did just get rear-ended by a guy that wasn’t paying attention last month- could that be funny? Well, it was really scary to me, so probably not the funniest story…

How about the time in college when my roommate and I weren’t sure how to jump a car and we accidentally switched the wires, and it was smoking, and the Cy-ride driver got out of the bus to tell us that shouldn’t be happening, and a week later my dad and brother spent like an hour trying to pull-start it around the neighborhood with a yellow rope before we figured out I had simply blown a fuse? Ahhhh, that’s a good one :)

So anyway, I love telling these stories. I love turning unfortunate events into stories for opportunities to make people laugh! The bummer happens when people make assumptions based on these stories- like that I am a bad driver. I guess that’s the downside of self-disclosure. For people that don’t publish their silly escapades for all to know, they can happily go on knowing that no one will know that they accidentally drove off with the gas nozzle still in their car (you know who you are :).) But for me, I guess it’s worth it.

My driving record speaks for itself, but how fun is it to read something so boring?