In all honesty, I couldn't imagine myself actually driving a car in an actual traffic. To me, driving was something other people managed but not something that I could pull off in a million years. Well, things change and as you probably all know, once you fight away the fear and start learning something properly, it gets easier. I want to address everyone who's like me; someone who completely disregards the possibility to drive a car. Honestly, you can do it. It may seem scary at first, and it is, honestly. but you'll get a hang of it. Your focus suddenly sharpens and you actually can follow the rules with ease. You just need a bit of practice; that's why we have driving schools and instructors.
Since I was always so nervous about driving, I actually started almost a year ago. No, I didn't take actual lessons consistently for a year. But I still wanted to practice as much as I can before I could actually take up the driving lessons. It felt better to go to the driving school with some experience than none at all.
There's a big stadium relatively close to my home. Since the only person in my family who can drive is my dad, I hired him to instruct me behind the wheel at first. He'd drive us to the stadium and then let me drive for a bit. It was a disaster at first, as you can imagine. I didn't have confidence at all, and I would often mess up the use of car pedals. He obviously couldn't let me try anything on the streets for what it seems the longest time. But it wasn't really. I mean, I didn't actually get to drive every single day at first. In the beginning, this was just an idea of mine and we only went to the stadium on weekends. But once I've started to show some improvement, which was around two months after we started the practice, I was able to go in circles smoothly and park properly.
This is when my dad encouraged me to actually boost my practicing so that I can take up driving lessons and finally get the license. We went to the stadium for a couple of days in a row with my dad teaching me about car essentials and even allowing me to bring us home one day. Let me tell you, that experience was terrifying and nerve-wracking, but nothing happened. I drove and got us home without incidents. That was it. This was the moment it became clear to me that it was now or never, I had to .
Even with all the preparations I got, I was far from a prodigy in driving school, as you can expect. But my instructor was very nice and patient with me, and she explained that my behavior and worrying are perfectly normal and sometimes even beneficial when in the traffic. She offered quite valuable advice for both technical and non-technical stuff, too.
Before I finally took the first driving test, I had had 7 lessons with my instructor. I felt quite confident about my driving skills by that point. We've also been together on the road for a couple of times already. But I don't think it would come as a surprise that I actually failed my first driving test. The biggest mistake, after all that time, didn't have to do with my knowledge and driving per se, but my tendency to rely on other people too much. My instructor had noticed that and actually talked to me about it several times, and I thought I was over it. But when she said that I can turn right to the one-way street, I blindly listened even though the sign was right in front of me. I learned quite a valuable lesson then.
Obviously, this story has a happy end. Six months after the first driving test I took the second one, which I actually passed. Some of you may think that this is a very long time to spend on driving practice, but it's not just about driving. There are people who feel comfortable behind the wheel the moment they step into the car. But I was not one of them. And if you're anything like me and driving makes you nervous, don't hesitate to take all the time you need to actually gather confidence and focus that driving requires. The actual ability to drive is easy enough to pick up, especially with the right instructor.
