Confession: I’m 33 years old and I JUST learned how to drive.
Okay let’s back track a bit… I actually have always had a driver’s license; I just didn’t drive.
How?!
You see, as a native New Yorker, we never really had the urgency or “need” to drive – & how could you blame us? We have a 24hr subway system that can take you anywhere & if ever you needed to get in a car, you could just hail yourself a cab! Or better yet, call an Uber so why should I drive?
Luckily I quickly realized that living and being a part of this unlicensed wilderness was nothing to boast about and part of “adulting” was driving so I set out to become a driver before I turned the age of 21. After enrolling in driving school, ace-ing the written exam and almost getting a perfect score on the driving portion (**dang, examiner tricked me into not officially putting my vehicle in “park” after the parallel parking portion**), I was ready to hit the roads in NYC and beyond…except I didn’t. I never had the opportunity to drive so I never used it and lost it.
Jadi: 0
Life: 1
Now that I’m living in Suburbia, it is a MUST and within the first two weeks of our move I set out to pick this skill back up and can now say that I’m officially open for D.D. business!
Not gonna lie, it was scary, and still is at times. When you’re young, you’re much more fearless and worry less and as an adult all sorts of “what ifs” start to creep in your mind. But if I can do it, so can you so here are here are some of my tips as a newbie adult driver:
LEAVE IT TO THE PROFESSIONALS
Learning from loved ones is awesome but sometimes, as much as they’d like to not make you feel this way, they end up making you feel less at ease and more nervous. Take a lesson or two from a professional – it’s a sure way to make you feel like driving is something you can actually do
DISTRACTIONS
I never realized it but driving is one heck of a multi-tasking activity! It requires all use of your senses and analytical thinking, so in the beginning, minimize your distractions – watch out for loud music and put that phone away (or on ‘do not disturb’)
FUCK ‘EM
pardon my French but seriously, people will start honking and cutting you off. You focus on driving safely and correctly. If people want to pass you, let them. If they start honking at you, that’s not your problem… don’t worry about what strangers think of you as a driver, you focus on driving safely and you’ll be good
THE NEED FOR SPEED
You don’t have to go 0 to 100 in your first drive but you do have to at least go close to if not just under the speed limit and guess what, there’s a whole lane created for this… the right lane! If it gets too intimidating picking up speed, hit that right lane and cruise at the speed limit
BE CONFIDENT
A safe driver is a confident driver so get as comfortable in that seat as you need – even if it means using a pillow to “boost” you up lol
Join in! What do you think?