"Looks like were going to burn some rubber now," shouted Kasey Cannon, 25, sitting behind the wheel of a PT Cruiser on Tuesday morning.
Coaches at MasterDrive academy in Englewood held their collective breaths while Cannon stepped on the gas and drove for the first time.
She has been blind since birth.
Cannon was one of 20 students of the Colorado Center for the Blind who took driving lessons at MasterDrive on Monday and Tuesday.
It was an experience most had never had before.
For the second year, MasterDrive's owner, Ron Langford, agreed to have four coaches help the students navigate through an obstacle course and teach them how to recover from a skid.
When Cannon's turn at the wheel was over, she was thrilled.
"That was awesome!" she said, "I have wanted to do that since I was 12.
"When I was small, I used to collect Matchbox cars, and I would imagine I took trips in them," she said. "I wanted to be like other people."
All the students were teasing one another, smiling and excited.
"There you are, Kasey. I wanted to see you," said David Rice, 20, also visually impaired, approaching Cannon after her driving lesson. They both laughed.
"I could hardly sleep last night, thinking of this. It was like Christmas," said Cannon, who speaks fluent Spanish and has a degree in sociology. "Every new task you accomplish is exciting."
The Colorado Center for the Blind offers a 9- to 12-month training program on independent-living skills. The goal for graduates is to be completely self-sufficient.
Students are admitted after they're 18, and they learn skills such as cane travel, home management and using special technologies for the visually impaired.
They also do challenging activities such as rock climbing and hiking.
The driving lessons are just for fun, but they're also "very empowering," said Julie Mullen, home-manager instructor with the Colorado Center for the Blind. "It stretches their limits."
David White, 34, a retired police officer from Missouri, lost his sight in an off-duty car accident seven years ago. On Tuesday, he drove for the first time since the accident.
"I think I did pretty good," White said. "But I don't know where I'm supposed to turn, you know?"
White is learning to read Braille. He wants to go back to college and find a job. White said he wasn't nervous about driving because he likes new challenges. Recently, he went bowling and roller-skating with his two boys, 7 and 5 years old.
"Today, I drove. Next, I might go skiing," White said. He wasn't joking. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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