Today, I Experienced Driving A Car

June 14, 2011
First of all, let me just address the fact that I have been afraid of the idea of driving for the longest time. Truthfully, I wasn't very much interested in the idea when I was a 10th grader because of the fact that I wouldn't have my own car to drive anyways (and also I, being under five feet and over four foot five inches, had an intense fear of not being able to see over the steering wheel). But as the years passed, it had to be a necessity for me to know how to drive if I wanted a job. Yet even though I found jobs that earned me good money, I still refused to drive and had to be chauffeured by my parents to work.
However, after some critical thinking about reality, I have learned how to drive today. The exact reasons for my change of heart are within two realizations I had about two weeks ago.

The first one is that I cannot do any worse than the drivers in Thailand, or for that matter, any Asian driver not in America. If being in Thailand has taught me one thing, it is that drivers over there have no driving restrictions. In a tuk-tuk vehicle, we weaved in and out of traffic like race cars in Mario Kart game. Though it was awesome in one aspect, it made me gain confidence in my own nonexistent driving skills.

The second reason lies in the fact that I need money. I need money so desperately that it's conquering any fear that I have that hinders it (except perhaps being lewd in public--- I'm not budging on that just yet). In any case, I have a lot of things I want to do and it is going to take cash to remedy it. So in a nutshell, driving allows me to get a job to rectify that situation.

So today, my parents finally acted on giving me lessons. We drove from school to school around 10 AM, but apparently, all driving schools in my county and surrounding areas are closed on Tuesdays. After a lot of debating in the car, my parents thought it would be better to just teach me themselves.

It was about 1 PM and they decided the best place to drive was on the empty roads of the housing development across from our neighborhood. The roads were straight, leveled, and barely curved, making it perfect practice for me. They parked the car on the road and taught me the controls and basics I needed to know before they turned on the engines and commanded me to go.

Because I am a short person, they made sure to put a pillow under my butt and move up the chair some so I could reach the dang pedals. Even though I felt comfortable with the chair and pedal position, however, my body still tensed up and I learned that the tip of my foot was enough to power the car to go 20 MPH. Since pressure control became the problem for me at first, I kept my foot near the brake most of the time as a precaution. Therefore, driving became a very, very slow experience for me.

As we went along, though, I felt better about the pedal and my driving speed, enough to then notice that I was never within the lines of the designated road. I realize now that I'm not good at calculating distances and spaces automatically in my mind, so that is definitely something I need to work on. Otherwise, I'm going to be making fender-benders left and right.

We kept driving back and forth from area of the housing development to another using a single road. Turning and stopping at signs became the items I had to be concerned about at that point. It wasn't so hard, though, and I'm kind of proud of myself for holding out on not driving into a ditch. On a side note, my arms were hurting like crazy because I put so much grip on the steering wheel.

A little later on in the evening, my dad drove us out to my high school so I could practice turning. Once again, I was freaked out about the spacing in the road and how much I needed to turn without crashing into a sidewalk. After driving through the narrow parking lanes and learning how to use the turn signal, I got the hang of it and cruised pretty smoothly through my turns. Of course, my tendency to end up a little in the left lane was very eminent (but I'll correct that). But due to my dad's constant nagging about bumps and how I should brake a little as I approach them, well...yeah, it's now drilled into my system that I should brake at bumps.

As of now, I am kind of excited to drive tomorrow. A bit scared that maybe I'll screw up a little, but otherwise excited...as it should be.