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Oh well,
what to begin with? As I said in our last monthly article about what we have
done of interesting in our lives (click here), I travelled to my island for a
week to be with my family in the Easter break of University. Only a week, yet a
lot of things to do, one of them being, as you can presume by the title, my
firsts driving lessons.
Last
Summer, I had two weeks of classes on the code of the road, and in early
September I had a test passing proudly with everything correct. Subsequently,
my second year at the University was to start a few days after I passed the
test, so I did not have time to start with the practical classes next. This
way, my mother held it was for the best to mark some classes for this Easter
week because after passing the theoretical exam, I have a one-year period to
pass the driving test, in order to finally take my driving license. And that's how
we did it. I arrived in Madeira on Saturday, early in the afternoon, and my
first class was Monday morning, for two hours. I tried to not stay too nervous
during the day before, but it was hard. I passed all Sunday disguising my
nervousness to my family, with my habitual dark humour, and making jokes like
"I'm going to hit the car against a tree" or "Do not go to the
street while I'm in class! Do you want to die?!", only to hear my parents
say "Do not talk nonsense. Everything will work out.". Of course, that
I was saying these kinds of stuff, but at the same time I thought, "I hope
not, I do not want to screw up!". Ahah, I can already confirm that I did
not kill anybody, or a tree, however, I was not that better.
In my
first lesson, on Monday morning, the instructor spent about half an hour
explaining to me the basics, and he did all he could to put me at ease and
forget my nerves. Did it work? Nop, but he tried. See, I think that is an
inevitable thing to be nervous, especially me that had never driven in my
nineteen years! Not for lack of effort since whenever I asked to try, my
parents would answer that first I had to have the classes (I believe that they
didn't trust me enough to practise with their cars, quite rightly so). When the
instructor finally finished his explanation, with questions in the middle -
good thing that the day before my mother had explained some things about the
operation of the transport (I was living in ignorance) - he announced that it
was time to start driving. In my head, a dramatic music played, and I just
thought "What? Now? Nothing more to explain, so I can have more time to
prepare?".
Without
excuses to postpone the imminent, I gave up on the interior monologues,
adjusted my chair, put on my seat belt, straightened the mirrors, and as a
result, next thing I know I am already driving. To be honest, I do not know how
I was doing it, but the truth is that the car was already in progress. The
instructor was telling me directions, and I was going at a mediocre speed.
We ride
through my small town, and to my surprise, my performance did not go very
badly: to the exception of a few mistakes, I managed to overcome my nervousness
and the two hours ended. It was not perfect, but also not terrible. The worst
came in the afternoon when I had two more hours. I don’t know what happened if
it was the fact that we went to a different place or if it was the fact that
possibly I was not giving enough attention to what I was doing, it was just
poor. Namely: “You are going too fast, beware of the speed”, “You're turning
too soon!”, “You're going too far to the right side!” were some of the alerts I
was given. At the end of the class, I was very disappointed with myself, but
the instructor said that, for a first day, it wasn’t bad, and that I should not
think that the first time was going to be perfect, that I was there to learn.
Even though I am aware of that, I am a very self-criticism person, I left
thinking "I should have done better, there are no excuses!".
Furthermore,
on the morning of the following day, I had my last two hours of lessons for
this Easter week. In my perspective, a normal person, after four lessons, would
begin to get the hang of it, but me? I was awful. Indeed, the only thing that I
missed was hitting the car against the dustbin! Maybe I am being too dramatic,
but you get the idea, it was not decent. I screwed up early, consequently,
after that, it just got worse. My nerves got worse, my concentration was bad...
Summing up, I was not doing anything right. It's as if I've forgotten all I've
learned before. Internally, I kept repeating to myself, "Stupid! You're so
stupid! How can you be failing this?!". At one point, I was so nervous
that I could not even tell which was my right and my left! When the lesson
finished I was fairly relieved, reflecting that, for the moment, it was over
and that I would only have to worry about me being terrible again in the
Summer, when I will be able to continue with the classes.
Since I
have memory, having my driving license was a goal that I would like to
accomplish. My father is an excellent driver, it's what he does for a living.
My mother took her driving license when she was eighteen, but spent years
without driving, until the moment arrived when she could not avoid it anymore:
she had to overcome her fears and start driving again. I admire her a lot, she
is for sure an amazing driver, getting better and better, day by day. Moreover,
I got into a car with the feeling that, yes, I was going to be nervous, yet
maybe I could adjust quickly due to my parent’s talent: "Maybe it runs in
the family!". Perhaps, I was naive having such hope. My problem is that I
forgot that it takes practice and that although there are people who are born
with talent, there are others who take a little longer to get there, and I am
one of them.
Curiously,
I keep remembering SpongeBob writing this article, I hope I'm not as bad as
him!
For you to
be aware of how disappointed I was with my first classes, whenever my family
talked about it, I changed the topic because I did not even want to remember my
disgrace.
To
conclude, one of the main reasons for me to do this post - besides providing
you with a recomforting reading of my misfortune, if your experience has not
been so pleasant either - is for me to, by the time I get to the Summer and I
have to start once again with my classes, come and read this text with the
intention to remind me of my first practice with driving. Therefore, at that
point, I can take my mistakes, try to overcome them and improve to my benefit.
With this said, if you are going to start taking driving lessons, remember that
it’s normal to be nervous, and it’s okay to make mistakes. You are having
lessons to learn, and you are not obligated to be instantly perfect. Also,
don’t do what I am doing and if you have the opportunity mark your classes all
at once, without great breaks in the middle. Thus, there is no forgetting, and
learning is much more productive.
How was
your first-time driving a car?
Nb: I do not own any of these GIFs.
Nb: I do not own any of these GIFs.
I hope you
have a lovely week!
Mariana Nunes
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