Frederick Douglass found that learning new things can have a positive, as well as a negative effect on people. For me, one thing that I learned that has had both of those effects on me was learning how to drive. It was positive in the way that I could get around and go places on my own, but negative in the way that my mother could send me on errands to run around and do things for her.
    

Driving was always something I wanted to do, even from a young age, so naturally I was excited to learn how. I’d always wanted to be able to get around from place to place quickly and without having to ask one of my parents to come along with me. I had friends who were able to drive around places, and whenever I would go to hang out with them, I was so excited, because there was almost no limit to where we could go and what we could do. I had so much fun then.
   

The day I went to go get my learner’s permit was one of the best days ever. I nearly aced the test and got my picture taken, then I was given my permit. I was really ecstatic, and my mother even let me drive home. I wasn’t very good, but It was still pretty fun. And since then, I’ve only gotten better.
   

There is a downside to this, however. My mother now can send me to do things that I wouldn’t normally do, like take my siblings to their friends houses and pick them up afterward. At least, that would be the case back in America, here it’s even worse, I can’t even drive at all. So now I did all of that studying and practicing for nothing.
   

Just like Frederick Douglass, I discovered that Learning can have advantages and disadvantages. My learning how to drive was useful for a time, but now it is useless information just floating inside my head, waiting to become relevant again.