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| I heart this car! |
I started driving when I was fifteen. Illegally. Not sure if I should've said that, but there it is. Shh... My parents trusted me for a good reason. I was responsible and reasonably intelligent, if not incredibly. Lol, I kid. Anyway, I was entrusted with the family car because at the time, my dad was working in the States, my brother was away at university, and with the need to lug ten tonnes of textbooks home, my parents thought it a better idea to just teach me how to drive so I don't further wreck my back (something I might write about later) by carrying so much crap. I was also responsible for getting groceries with my mom during that time.
I remember very clearly, the first time I ever sat behind the steering wheel. It was a very scary experience for me because my mom has gotten into car accidents before, when she was in Taiwan, one of which was bad enough that she needed skin grafting on her foot. (By the way, none of them were her fault -- there are a lot of careless drivers in Taiwan, for instance, a drunk truck driver was the cause of my mom needing that foot surgery). Needless to say, my idea of driving was not a very good one... Especially when my mom doesn't drive anymore because she's afraid... We practiced in a school parking lot, North Surrey, if I remember correctly. (Or was it Green Timbers? Fraser Heights? I don't know.) We drove a Ford Mercury Sable back then. With a green interior and exterior, lol. I loved that car. It was my first car. I remember the accelerator being sensitive, as we jerked forward even when I stepped on the pedal ever so gently. "Always step on the pedal as if there is an egg underneath it," my father advised me. So I drove around in a circle a couple of times before I stopped and switched seats with my dad because the students were off school.
The more familiar I got with driving, the more confident I became with my driving that driving to and from school was a breeze. And when my mom got a part-time job as a sales adviser at the mall, I often drove her home as well. Still illegally, by the way, lol.
Knowing that I could get into immense trouble for this, I drove my friends home too, sometimes. Even though my parents warned me that I shouldn't. Hey, that's the best thing about being a teenager -- being rebellious, lol. I think the closest that I ever came to getting into an accident was when it was raining very heavily this one day after school. My best friend was sitting shotgun, and I needed to make a left turn. With visibility decreased and the traffic being very crowded (what with all the parents picking their children up from school), I saw an opening and I went for it. I didn't hit anything or even got honked at, but when I straightened up after turning into the lane, there was suddenly a truck next to me. Which freaked me out because I didn't see it. I mean, I wasn't being careless, I paid attention, but the truck's presence (perhaps it sped up next to me as I straightened up) made me ask my friend, "Hey, did you notice that truck before?" Well, obviously I didn't hit it because we didn't feel any impact, but yeah. Lol, so silly.
When I turned sixteen, I went for the written portion of the exam. I barely studied for it because I was cocky. Since, you know, I've been driving consistently for like a year. So I just barely passed the exam, lol. Phew. And after that, they test your vision and that's when I realized I needed glasses because I couldn't see a damn thing in the microscope-y thing they have you look into and read the numbers you see out loud. I told the person, "I don't see anything. Are you sure this isn't broken?" So the guy comes over and looks into it and was like, "Yeah, I see numbers, yeah." Super lame.
So after I got my glasses, I went back and finished the eye test and got my Learner's license. Sweet! And then time came when I went for my New driver's license.
That wasn't as fun.
First of all, my parents thought that I should get some proper lessons before I went for my test. Some fine tuning. Anyway, it was a family friend. He was mean to me! I think it's because I consistently showed up his kids with my grades that he found the need to criticize me for everything I did. It was not a fun experience at all. And I think I cried afterwards...
My exam date came up and I went to my exam... and failed. *takes a deep breath here*
Let me just say, when I was sixteen, I felt invincible, lol. Failure was not something known to me. I was ambitious and a go-getter and I was always successful. So me failing my first driving test hit me pretty hard. Especially when I know I am, at the very least, a decent driver. Otherwise I would've gotten into multiple accidents already.
So here is what happened. It was all going smoothly. I was told to always be at the speed limit because examiners like to nitpick at everything and very much liked to fail people. Everything went well until we were waiting at a T-intersection with no lights. From my lane, you could only turn left or right and my examiner wanted me to turn left. I don't know why I was impatient at that moment because I used to have the patience of a saint, no jokes, lol. I thought I'd pull something smart and decided to cut the line and do my left turn (since there were two lanes going into the left). So I did that, after doing the usual observations of course... except one of the cars from the side that I was going into, decided to be impatient too and use the lane I was turning into to cut in front of the car in front of him. Basically, we would've crashed head onto one another had we both not braked in time. Here, I've included a diagram for your better understanding.
I don't remember what was going on but none of the cars were moving and there was no construction stopping cars from moving... Lol, I find it funny that I can still remember the guy's expression through his window. He was like :O. Hahaha... Anyway. That's the reason why I failed my first driving exam. Because I committed a "dangerous maneuver." *sigh* Yeah, I cried after this too, lol. But the thing was, I should be merited for my calm and for getting out of situation without a scratch. I know, I know, I should've waited and I've been kicking myself ever since, okay? I think it's because my dad sets a bad example for me, lol. He does this all the time!
So, *clears throat* I went for my second driving test. I failed that too because my driving examiner this time (a fat, probably racist, Caucasian guy) had me parallel park next to a hill that had no curbs. It's important to mention that it was spring time and there was frost on the ground. After I parallel parked, my examiner got out and saw that my right back tire (by the mark left in the frost) had gone up the hill a teensy-weensy bit, so he failed me for it. -__- I'll never understand why parallel parking is given such importance, because let me tell you what I did for my parallel parking in my third (and final, thank God) exam.
For my third exam, my old neighbour accompanied me to it because my dad was busy. I was pretty nervous by then and I remember getting yelled at by him for going too fast, lol. I practiced some parallel parking with him beforehand since we arrived a little too early for my exam.
My examiner this time was a woman. She was pretty nice and I felt a little bit more at ease. It was an autumn and rainy day, so I had the heater on to prevent the windows from fogging up. I think the heat gave her a headache, lol. I remember there was this one curved road I was driving on and I was trying my hardest to keep speed limit and I kept accelerating and braking to maintain it and she was like, "Can you stop doing that, please?" And I was like >.> "Ok, sorry." I guess she didn't really care, lol. Near the end of the exam, she had me parallel park at this spot behind a car and it was a spot not sandwiched between cars. So all I did was just pull up behind that car, haha. Yes!
So I passed and I think she was glad it was over because of her headache. With my N, I can then take up to one passenger (that is not in one's immediate family), legally. So I'd often pick up my friends walking to school and whatnot.
Oh, there was another time when I almost got into an accident. Not with a car though, but rather an obstruction sign, lol. I was driving home during my spare block because it was the last block of the day and I wanted to go home early. And as I'm driving (with another friend in shotgun), I wasn't paying attention because he was talking and pointing something out to me that I almost drove the car into this obstruction sign on an island. Oops. But I didn't. Because I swerved back in time. Phew.
After I graduated high school, I didn't drive for almost a year because I had gone to Toronto for school. That summer though, I drove on the highway for the first time. On my *thinks* 19th birthday? I was taking my mom to a sushi buffet in Richmond. It was nerve-wrecking. At this one intersection where the light had just turned yellow, I couldn't decide whether to wing it or to stop because I was driving at 60km/h. I decided that it'd be better to stop so I stopped and I almost made my mom jam her lipstick up her nose. >.> But we got there just fine. Definitely something memorable for my 19th birthday. Speaking of my 19th birthday, there was also something else memorable that happened night, also involving driving, but I wasn't the driver, lol. I'll probably write about that at a later date.
Oh oh, something else. Almost every week, I had to drive to this place because I was taking calculus online when I was in Gr.12 (I had a falling out with my calculus teacher (if you can even call him one -- maybe I'll rant about this in another post too, lol) at my high school). I was horribly sick when I was in Gr.12... probably had a persistent cold for like 10 months of the year. Every time I got better, I'd get sick again, *snaps finger* like that. Anyway, because I was taking calculus at this online school, it meant that I had to drive to the school to take my exams. After I had taken my exam that day, I was going to drive home, but being all congested and tired, I kept, repeatedly, backing up into this boulder in the parking lot, lmao. To be fair, it was a crappily designed parking lot -- very small and narrow. Who puts boulders in parking lots?! And with me being... not of the "right" mind, lol, I just couldn't get my angle right to back out and drive off. That was pretty funny. I didn't really damage (I scrapped it a little) my car though because I didn't lose my mind enough to stomp on the accelerator as I backed out.
Then university happened. With me being out of province and away from home, it meant that I didn't drive for about 4 years. Circumstances just didn't give me an opportunity to get behind the wheel. Until I was done school. When my dad came to pick me up and drive my crap down to Philadelphia, I drove for the first time in 4 years. Nervous? Definitely. I kept wiping my hands on my pants because my palms were getting sweaty. And my hands hurt after because I was gripping the steering wheel much too tightly.
Then of course came the long distance driving trip from Philly to my current home... And since then I've only driven twice. I'm a nervous driver now. Lost all of my confidence... It's another sad thing really. It also makes me miss the public transportation that made traveling to places easier when I was in Toronto...
Hmm, I thought of a happier way to end this post than it currently stands, lol. Yes, I've been thinking of writing this post for a while and haven't gotten to it until now so I've forgotten how I was going to end this.
Oh oh, I remember my first drive in snow. Had to drive to school. My dad told me to just drive slow and to be careful. And I did and I was. When I came home, my dad said he was watching me from upstairs and he laughed because I went so much slower than he wanted me to. But that's how I am. I am careful. Lol. I think I drove at like 10km/h the entire way. That was funny...
Okay. I don't know how to end this post. Except that I think I proved myself not one of these drivers. Hahahaha! Okay. This is how I'm going to end this post...
Boobz.
