Sitting here writing this post I'm still in absolute shock. Driving was definitely not something that came naturally to me and frankly if he'd asked me to do a parallel park I don't think I would have passed!
For todays post I wanted to talk you through my experience learning to drive as I feel like there are a lot of people (particularly our parents) who are constantly telling us how 'easy' it is and wondering why we can't pass which leads to a lot of learners thinking they're the worlds worst driver.
This morning I was absolutely convinced I would be failing again. I say again because this was my third attempt at taking the test. As mentioned above, I'm not a natural. In fact the point of todays post is to tell you guys that you can do it even though it may seem utterly, utterly impossible.
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Let's go back to the beginning: I first started learning to drive September 2014, about six months or so after turning 17. To be honest I wasn't that bothered about learning (and damn frightened as well) until I started seeing my friends pass. Then I felt terrible about making them give me lifts everywhere so I decided to start learning.
Initially it was great, I had a fabulous instructor (honestly he was so amazing can't recommend enough) who explained things calmly, never got angry and took things at a really good pace. I picked things up I'd say, at about the same pace as most people. Around a year ago I took my theory and passed first time which of course I was really happy about and then it was just a few more weeks of lessons before my first test. (If anyone is looking for good ways to revise theory questions I would highly recommend the DVLA questions app. It's like £2 and has thousands of actual test questions on it. You can do mock tests, look at specific areas or just practise all the questions - it was great!)
Around March time last year my parents agreed to buy a small car for me to learn in and then when I passed, I could keep. We ended up going for a black Toyota Aygo who I christened Arwen (Lord of The Rings reference or what?! I was going through a phase...) and prayed we would become besties. However this was where it all started to go wrong. I'd learnt in a diesel Vauxhall Corsa with a 1.2L engine and my new car was a 1L petrol. Now that might not seem like a big deal but for my Corsa obsessed brain I just couldn't get my head around the difference. I stalled all. the. time. It was so embarrassing I began to hate driving. Even the thought of going out in my car put me on the verge of tears. It was so confusing, how could everyone else in the world manage to drive and I just couldn't?! I felt like such a failure.
Meanwhile I was still having lessons with my instructor none the wiser. It was like two different drivers: with him I could park, reverse around corners, drive in super heavy traffic around massive roundabouts... But put me in my car and I could barely drive around a deserted industrial estate without having a breakdown.
My first driving test was in June 2015. Now I know what you're thinking: Oh my god, thats like, 8 months after you started to drive! I did my test two months after I turned 17!! A lot of people have told me that maybe my instructor was just trying to get more money out of me but honestly I just needed more hours than most people. I'm not Lewis fricking Hamilton alright?!
Needless to say I failed and to be honest I wasn't too disappointed or surprised. I still hated driving my car so even if I had passed, chances are I wouldn't have driven anywhere anyway. The most annoying thing was the wait times. Where I live the wait times vary from three to four months to retake your test! It's an absolute joke, I've almost been waiting for tests as long as I was learning in the first place!
Because of this I decided to take a break from lessons, I didn't really need them every week and they can get expensive. In the meantime I decided to tackle my problem with Arwen. My parents were really supportive and said that if I wanted to quit learning and go back to it in a few years then that was fine, but my competitive brain didn't want that. So I persevered. I spent hours doing stop-starts along the same stretch of road, trying to get to grips with my car. And it worked. Whilst I still wasn't going to win any driving prizes slowly but surely I became more adapted.
My second test was booked for the middle of October. I felt a lot more confident, I'd had ten lessons leading up to it to ensure I was confident in my instructors car again and I felt like I could do it. However it wasn't meant to be. My examiner was an absolute asshole. He was so smug and just made me feel like like I was messing everything up. Like to start with he asked me (as part of the show-me-tell-me questions) to put on the rear windscreen washer. I presumed he wanted to see the front one as well, so I put on both and he had a little strop like "I only asked for the back one." Basically I think he thought I was an utter moron. So after that fabulous start we went off driving and it was all going okay until it came to the manoeuvres. The little sh*t made me parallel park, which anyone who is learning to drive will tell you its basically satan. To make matters worse the area in which I had to park on didn't have a proper curb (bloody fantastic) so I had to guess how far away it was. The first attempt I made was shocking, I almost hit the curb, so I asked to start again. After taking a couple of seconds to compose myself I tried again and got in the spot. However because I'm sneaky I had a look at his paper and noticed that I'd been given a major for it. I was so angry and upset I completely gave up and ended up getting something like 11 minors.
It was such a horrible experience that as soon as he'd gone and my instructor was back in the car I just burst into tears. Bless his heart he gave me a tissue and told me that all was not lost etc. But I felt awful. Compared to the first test, it had been so much more stressful and upsetting and I was basically ready to curl up into a ball of shame on the floor.
In terms of Arwen and myself, I've been driving her to and from work and we are nearing the bestie level. I feel so much more confident driving her, I'm so happy I continued.
Once again, I had another three and a half month waiting time (absolute joke) and then today was the day of my third test. To be fair I thought I'd failed as soon as we left the test centre carpark because I hit the bloody curb on the way out (I ask you, how embarrassing) but told myself that all is not lost, so I kept trying my hardest. For my manoeuvre I got reverse around a corner which was amazing as it's my favourite! We also went on the same test route I had last time so I knew all of the dodgy areas! Even so, I was still so surprised I passed the conversation went something like this:
Him: "Okay, I'm pleased to tell you, you've passed!"
Me: "Oh my god, are you serious!!?"
Him: "Yes"
Me: "I can't believe it, I thought I was going to fail! This is my third attempt you know!"
Oh dear Lily, how tragic are you?!
But to be honest the morale of the story is that you should never give up. Learning to drive is the hardest thing I've ever done (even including A levels) and I didn't think I could ever do it. Just goes to show that eventually we can do anything we set our minds to!
Thanks for reading my lovelies and good luck if you're learning to drive!
