Life is a highway....but not at 16!

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Moma Rock picked the topic: Who taught you how to drive? And, what sort of experiences did you have as a new driver on the road?

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

It's interesting that this topic comes up right before I turn 36, as I am approaching my 20 year anniversary of being a licensed driver. I didn't get my license the day I turned 16 though. I got it about two months later....

I started my driving lessons through high school driver's ed class, second semester of sophomore year. It was a way to get a permit and not have to take extracurricular lessons. Really, I would have preferred to take the lessons outside of school though, for what they were worth to me in school. There was one nice teacher, Mr. J, but he just led the instructional portion of the class. I don't think he went on the road with anyone. He should have as he was the friendliest and most fatherly of the three teachers.

Mr. W was decent. He was the tough love type, but he didn't make people feel horrible about their driving skills. He said what worked and what needed improvement. And then there was Mr. L. People like him should NEVER become driving instructors. Maybe he should deal with people who get tickets for doing stupid stuff like drinking or texting while driving. He could scare them straight. Instead, he scared me off of driving highways for FIVE YEARS!

Aside from the fact that it was torturous enough being in a silent car (no music) with the sound of the turn signal clicking like a metronome, but also being with peers who are bound to make fun of you if you mess up during a road lesson, having Mr. L as the on-road instructor just multiplies that torture! And it's even worse when you're the only student in the car with him, he gives confusing directions and likes to step on his instructor brake even though it's clear that you're coming to a complete stop. So when I had a highway lesson with him and was reduced to tears afterward, that was it for me. I was never going to drive on a highway, tollway or expressway, even if you paid me to. I would take back roads to get to where I needed.

In the meantime, my dad taught me how to drive through lots of practice...and patience. He and I are alike in personality, so I'm surprised he stayed patient for so long. I can't even imagine teaching any of my kids to drive! In any case, he did whatever it took to help me become a good driver. We went out on weekends, just driving around the neighborhood. He took me to empty parking lots to teach me how to park between the lines. He let me drive to school every day before he took the car to work. I enjoyed those drives to school every morning. We'd listen to the radio in companionable silence while I navigated my way to school. He didn't make me nervous at all.

The summer leading up to my 16th birthday, I went to England for a month on an exchange program from high school. When I got back, I was somewhat out of practice and watching people drive on the other side of the road was strange for me. On my 16th birthday, I didn't go to get my license. I wasn't planning to anyway, as the pressure of turning 16 and getting your license that same day is a bit much. Instead, I managed to crack my mom's headlight while trying to park the car. Oops!

At the beginning of junior year, my dad signed me up for private driving lessons. The instructor was kind and patient...the complete opposite of Mr. L. After a few lessons, I felt ready and about two months after my 16th birthday, early on a Saturday morning, my dad took me to get my license. And you know what? I got it on the first try! I think I only had trouble on one type of turn but that wasn't enough to keep me from getting it. I was so proud of this accomplishment that the first thing I did at school the following week was find an excuse to flash it in front of Mr. L!

Shortly after getting my license, I got my first car...a 1986 Pontiac Sunbird. For a while, I just used it to go to and from school. Eventually, I started driving other places or out on errands. I had a decent track record until my first minor accident toward the end of junior year. I barely did any damage to the other car, but I got a ticket anyway. (At least it kept me from seeing a really bad movie.) There was another time my car scraped against my mom's car, but I wasn't getting a ticket for that!) Aside from that, having a car allowed me to bond more with my sister, especially when she started high school that fall. I drove her to and from school every day. We'd listen to the Eddie and JoBo show on B96 every morning and a Broadway soundtrack (usually "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat") every afternoon. I'd also pick her up from her babysitting gig after I started working at the Chinese restaurant.

In the summer of 1997, on the eve of my 21st birthday, I wanted to go to the city to see "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind."  My friend who was supposed to drive us to the city bailed on me, so I took it upon myself to learn how to drive on the expressway and made it safely to the show and back. It was an exhilarating feeling and my birthday gift to myself was conquering my fear of highways. (Take that, Mr. L!) After that night, I'd go to the city all the time to visit friends and felt totally comfortable. There were a couple of times I got lost, but I managed to find my way to where I needed to go. It also came in handy for going back to college in the fall, as I got to have my car down there and had more freedom to visit my family whenever I wanted. I took some other road trips that year, as well (such as my first interstate trip to visit my sister in Indiana).

These days, I don't drive on the highway as much, except to go to Baltimore for speech therapy. The Beltway is extremely congested and it's quicker to go to work on main roads. My latest driving fear is the van. I have yet to drive it anywhere. It seems so big and intimidating. I feel like it would be a driver's ed instruction all over again. I hope I can give myself a (good) reason to conquer this fear, but I haven't figured out what that will be yet. Time will tell, I guess....