When Teen Driving Shenanigans Come Back to Bite You and the Chance to Win Tires!

*This post is sponsored by She Buys Cars and Michelin but the shenanigan stories are my own. *

There's that moment when you are asked to write about driving safety for National Teen Driver's Week and your mind suddenly becomes a slideshow:

* the time you were 15 and tried to take your parents car for a ride around the neighborhood but it was a stick shift and you spent the rest of the afternoon just trying to get it back into the same spot on the hilly driveway before they got home
* when you were a senior in high school and attempted to hide the shrieking noise your car was making because prom was a few days away and you didn't want to be driven by your parents if your car was in the shop
* the senior skip day that never happened because when you and your friend were headed into school to sit for attendance and walk out a fat raccoon ran across the road and you rear ended the lady in front of you
* the time in Driver's Ed when the German foreign exchange student started going 85 on a rural highway and the 100 year old instructor finally told him to slow down to which he replied "in my country we do not have speed limits"
* the time you and your friend decided it would be really fun to drive across another state on Labor Day since you had no school but didn't tell anyone because it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

And then you realize that your oldest is only 5 years away from driving and HOLY CRAP that is scary considering what you did as a teenager. Seriously, if karma plays a role in this I am screwed.

Luckily the fine folks at Michelin North America and Katie Couric have partnered for the #SharingSafety campaign during National Teen Driver's Week. Click over to see tons of fascinating tips on their site.  They also have the oldie but goodie of checking your tire pressure. Every single time I saw my grandfather whether I was driving or it was my parents he inevitably asked "Is your tire pressure good?" and "Do you have enough gas?". Thank you Michelin for proving that my grandpa was on the cutting edge of driving safety, even if he did really enjoy turning to me at a particular set of train tracks and saying "Watch this, if you hit them just right you catch air!" (Reflecting back he may be where I got some of my driving mannerisms from).

But I'm not just here for fun driving tips and stories of my misguided youth- enter below for the chance to win $600 for Michelin tires and join the conversation on Thursday 10/22/15 at 9pm EST when we chat safety and teen driving education. Find out what you should be modeling now even for your youngest kids to start them off on the right foot!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You Are a Match

Eleven times.

I had moved 11 times when a courier appeared at the door to our temporary rental home in Vermont bearing a letter saying I was a match to someone needing a bone marrow donation. I had given birth less than a week prior and could not move forward with the process.

Fourteen times.

I had moved a grand total of 14 times since joining the registry in college during a drive in our student center when my husband received a call asking him to have me call in. I returned that call and am now in the process leading to bone marrow donation.

I learned two things. The National Marrow Donor Program and Be The Match is really REALLY good at finding people and that there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding donation and the registry itself.

I will be writing my way through this process as I wrap my head around it, trying to answer questions where I can. Time to start with a few questions to kick things off that came up from friends when I introduced the idea.

Do you know the patient?
No. All I know is that he is in his 50's.

Why are you donating? 
My father in law received a stranger marrow donation while fighting leukemia in 2012 and it's a large part of why he is still with us today. I want to bless someone in the same way that we were blessed.

How can I sign up for the registry? Who are they looking for? 
Sign Up Here. The main group that they are looking for is 18-44 year olds. HLA (human leukocyte antigen) markers used to match are inherited so ancestry can play a part in match. For this reason I strongly encourage my friends of color to register as there are groups that are underrepresented.

Source: Be The Match

Why are you writing about this?

Honestly, I struggled with this. I certainly didn't want anyone to think that I was looking for asspats or praise. I think it is a really important topic and I would love to see more folks join the registry. And selfishly I struggle sometimes with perfection. I want to be able to tell a neat little story and so I procrastinate waiting for things to be perfect. With donation there is no guarantee that my story will wrap up in a pretty little package. Everything could work out and I could donate, or they could at the last moment have a better match. Writing about something with an unknown ending will be good for me. 

I'll be back with more on donation as I go through my process. What questions do you all have?