My 15th birthday was back in September. I didn't get my driver's permit until this new year in January. I pretty much put it off for four months out of sheer laziness. And since then, I've barely used it. When I first got it, I drove up and down my street a couple of times. But my parents and even I didn't trust myself doing anything beyond that.
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| Visual representation of me driving. |
So my driver's permit has basically been sitting in the corner of my room for the past two months. Although, I've started to use it recently. Almost everyday after my track and field practice, my mom would pick me up and she'd pull over once we got off of Kearns Boulevard and turned onto a calmer road that I believe is called Old Highway 40. I would drive from there and pull over in the Home Depot parking lot and my mother would take back over from there. The first few times I pretty much sucked. I kept accidentally swerving into the other lane, driving too fast or too slow for the speed limit, and making extremely sharp turns which almost lead me to drive off of the road and in a ditch. But eventually after a week or so, I pretty much got the hang of driving on the country road.
A couple of days ago, there was a change of plans. My mother pulled over in the same spot and I proceeded to drive on the same road I had been practicing on for a couple of weeks. Except this time, instead of pulling over at Home Depot, she told me to continue past it. She wanted me to continue driving and pick up my little brother at his friend's house. I was anxious, but I knew I couldn't drive the same road forever. So I drove past Home Depot. Right after it, there was a roundabout that was generally pretty busy. Luckily for me, it was relatively quiet and there was only one other car in the roundabout before me. So I awkwardly drove in, accidentally driving exactly in the middle rather than staying to the left. From there on, I drove on an overpass above the highway, and continued on Highland Drive.
From there, I was doing okay. Except there was this pissy car behind me. I, an amateur driver, drove very poorly. I kept forgetting the speed limit, and when I realized I wasn't at the speed I needed to be, I'd abruptly accelerate or decelerate. This caused the driver of the car behind me to start honking. I didn't have to look back for me to know that the driver was ready to flip a table because of me. Eventually, when I turned into the driveway of my brother's friend's house, the car was able to pass me. The driver gave me a couple of good honks just to let me know how much I sucked for the final time. One of the worst parts is that the driver probably got a look at my face and observed two things about me: I'm asian and a woman. Unfortunately, I was living up to two stereotypes I'm strongly against. I also felt bad because I was probably close to giving my mother a heart attack. But hey, I probably didn't do that bad considering that was my first time driving for that long.
Overall, it's kind of sad that I started driving so late. If I actually cared and got my permit on my birthday like most kids my age, I would probably be a lot better than I am now. So because of the skill level I'm at now, I probably won't get my actual license when I turn 16, which is a bummer. I guess that means I'll have to work hard to make it happen. And sure, random driver behind me, I know I suck at driving. But as Jake the Dog would say, sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something, right?
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| (Via Sadmoment) |
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