My love affair with the toll road

My respite from the confines of life is the 241 toll road — a glorious 23 mile stretch of smoothly paved road, expansive hills and sky and an utter absence of traffic at most times of the day. I’m undeniably in love with it. My apologies to the 5, 55 and 91 freeways, but you’ll never measure up.

I began driving the toll road in the summer of 2011 when I took health in the summer at SMCHS. Since then, we have developed a rather special and intimate bond. I know all of its twists and turns, all of the bumps in the road (there are not many) and even the spots where bored police officers attempt to catch ‘rebellious’ teenagers like me going just a few miles per hour over the speed limit.

Over the course of my high school career, I have probably driven the round-trip about 800 times — counting extracurriculars and hangouts with friends on the weekends and over the summer. So you could say the toll road and I have gotten to be BFFLs (Best Friends For Life).

I am incredibly appreciative of the toll road as it provides a direct route to school that does not involve navigating miles of freeways. Oftentimes, I am asked if my drive to school is ‘terrible’ since I live in Yorba Linda, but I would say quite the opposite. In fact, I consider it incredibly pleasant to enter the 241 on ramp anytime between 6:40 a.m. and 6:55 a.m., listening to whatever music my heart desires and watching the sunrise, all while cruising towards school.

If I’m feeling contemplative, I turn off the music and just listen to the wind, which as it turns out, is a pretty nice alternative to Twenty One Pilots, ASAP Rocky, Bon Iver, Taylor Swift or whomever I normally find myself listening to.

Although it is a common misconception that driving limits you to doing only two things — turning the steering wheel and pressing down on either the gas or the break — there are actually a myriad of activities you can do while driving, especially on the 241 where it’s pretty much a straight shot from end to end.

You can speed (shh, don’t tell my mom), change your clothes, read a book, listen to an entire album, drink a venti, write poetry (in your head of course) and rack your brain for the information needed for whatever test you have that day. If you don’t feel like doing any of the above listed activities, I suggest just appreciating the rare alone time that driving the toll road provides you. It’s not often that you get 30 uninterrupted minutes to just ‘be’.

This alone time serves as my daily escape, and if I didn’t have it, I would undoubtedly go insane, though some of my friends would argue that I already have.

Many of the things I love are expensive and unfortunately, the toll road is one of them. It costs me $5.76 to get to school in the morning and $5.76 to get home in the afternoon for a grand total of over $11 a day. Personally, I think it’s worth it. And no, that has nothing to do with the fact that my parents’ credit card, not mine, pays for the trip.

I owe a lot to my old friend the 241: my mental health, my alone time and probably even my life — considering the amount of times I have almost fallen asleep while driving where the toll road has miraculously intervened to save me from destruction.

Not to mention, if it weren’t for the toll road, I would have been late countless times this year. But there’s something pretty magical about it because even the day I left my house at 6:57 a.m., I still made it to school on time (barely). Maybe the toll road gods secretly granted my car wings.

Admittedly, my 30-minute drive to and from school isn’t the most convenient, but what it lacks in convenience it overcompensates for in sheer awesomeness and splendor.

By far my favorite part of the toll road is that it grants me marvelous views of the sky regardless of the time of day. And when I finally depart South County at the end of the day, I get to see the sun kiss the ocean and the earth as I near closer to home.

If you’re feeling a little adventurous or perhaps curious about all the things that Yorba Linda has to offer, I would highly recommend you take an afternoon off from Oso and Marguerite and take the trip up that long and winding road that I frequent. I promise it’s worth the gas money.