When I first relocated to Pennsylvania, I commuted between my new home and a job in Manhattan. Most of the commute was a 70-minute drive on I-78. I’d head east-bound early in the morning and, save for sporadic traffic, it was seldom a problem. It was even scenic what with hills in the background and farms off the roadside up to the I-287 interchange. The west-bound drive wasn’t bad either…except for what I once thought a nasty curve just east of the Delaware River Gap.

Look: I learned to drive in New York City. I haven’t been in an accident that was my fault for as long as I can remember. It was downright humiliating to be peering over the steering wheel into the darkness and slowing even auto transporters behind me to a crawl. If the curve was Moby Dick, I needed to be Captain Ahab. Well, maybe not Captain Ahab…Moby Dick took him to the bottom of the sea. I needed to learn to take that doggone curve already.

The first 2 months or so, that curve was my Moby Dick. It’s one of those unlit stretches of interstate with no visible terminus that inexperienced or older drivers take at 40 mph, especially in bad weather. As a kid, I was kind of reckless behind the wheel. I bet that curve would have chilled me right out. As it was, I found myself hugging the right lane and getting honked at by eighteen wheelers riding my bumper.

Look: I learned to drive in New York City. I haven’t been in an accident that was my fault for as long as I can remember. It was downright humiliating to be peering over the steering wheel into the darkness and slowing even auto transporters behind me to a crawl. If the curve was Moby Dick, I needed to be Captain Ahab. Well, maybe not Captain Ahab…Moby Dick took him to the bottom of the sea. I needed to learn to take that doggone curve already.

Although my life has been pretty much all about taking on impossible challenges, I have to be kind of nudged into action most times. God knows I never wanted to work as hard as I have had to. In the case of learning this curve, my motivations were to shave time off my commute and redeem myself as a New York City-trained driver.

These days, I take that curve at 90 mph…if I think I can get away with it. There’s a weigh station manned by New Jersey State Police just 5 miles down the road. But my battle with that curve mirrors the challenge I face now to restructure my world. Here I am:

  • a single parent who never even planned to have kids;
  • a former office worker who never had any business in an office;
  • a home owner who knows next to nothing about owning a home; and
  • an aspiring writer born and raised in New York City with only tangential connections to New York’s literary community.

If you were placing bets at Aqueduct, I’d be the longest shot on the ticket. I still wouldn’t bet against me, though; nobody’s better at learning the curve.