Rumblestrips Ahead!

Nine years ago I discovered rumblestrips. My life was changed forever. Seriously. Do you know what a rumblestrip is? I was driving around DC and came upon a sign that said, “Rumblestrips Ahead.” What the hell is a rumblestrip? Just as I opened my mouth to ask my passenger that question, I ran over those raised bumps in the road that vibrate your car and warn you that a stop sign is ahead. Oh, so that’s what a rumblestrip is. Makes sense.

From that moment on, I began to think about rumblestrips and I haven’t stopped since. You think I’m exaggerating, but I am not. I think about them all the time, and not only when I’m driving over them. They have become the metaphor of my life. I own the domain name rumblestrips.net, and I’d own the dot com version, too, if someone hadn’t beat me to it. The dot com site of rumblestrips is owned by a band of the same name in the UK. If and when I publish a book I’ve been thinking about for some time now, I will call it Rumblestrips.

There are two types of rumblestrips. The first type are constructed several yards before an intersection. These warn you about the upcoming intersection and subsequent stop sign or traffic signal. The second type are shoulder rumblestrips. They are constructed along the side of the highway, usually on the interstate, and they are narrow and run along the shoulder of the outside lane. If you start to drift off onto the shoulder of the highway, you feel the little vibration and hear a rumble. You can then correct your course.

As I go through my life, looking back on the past, as well as being aware of what’s going on in the here-and-now, it is easy to identify the rumblestrips. They are warnings that there is danger ahead, that I’m drifting off course, that there is a dangerous intersection ahead, basically that something is just not quite right or normal.

My rumblestrips come by way of other people’s comments, my conscience, information gathered, something I read, but most often from my own intuition.

The first identifiable rumblestrip in my life was when my parents took me out of public school after the 8th grade and enrolled me in a private, Christian school. Even though they didn’t know about my shenanigans with the boat, and other similar things I was getting into, they must have sensed something in me that told them they needed to intervene and change my environment. Even though I didn’t think they knew about my pot smoking and newly discovered love of alcohol, they must have known on some level. Thankfully, they chose to throw up a rumblestrip. I fought them and cried endless tears, to no avail… on the first day of 9th grade I found myself in a small, Christian school, away from my drug-using, trouble-making friends. I was the only one I knew in school who smoked cigarettes. Unlike school the previous year, when I wanted to smoke, I was out behind the school alone doing it, rather than standing in a circle with a dozen other rule-breakers.

The next rumblestrip that came along was making the volleyball team as a freshman. It was hard to get stoned everyday after school when I had volleyball practice and games. After a while, sports became more important to me than getting high, at least during high school.

Another rumblestrip during my teenage years was my involvement with a youth group at our church. This involvement didn’t stop me from doing a lot of harmful and stupid things, but it curbed me. Like a rumblestrip, it didn’t force me to stop, but it sure provided me a lot of warning about the dangers of what I was doing.

I won’t go through all the rumblestrips in my life; there are simply too many. Once I became aware of rumblestrips, though, my awareness level of both myself and the circumstances and events of my life became so much greater. And I believe that if I remain aware and open myself up to every day’s lessons, I am a better person, a happier person, and live a much fuller life.

I’m Maze. I’m an addict.