The Funny Things About Learning to Drive…

Firstly, I want to clear something up.. I cannot drive. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t tried to learn to drive in the past. I have, at 17, when all the money I was earning was my own, I didn’t have a child to support or even my self to support. However, due to some mishaps and then university, I never passed my test.. in fact I only managed a grand total of five lessons. My provisional has long expired a for the time being I’ve put the learning to drive thing on hold until I’m a bit more financially stable.. and once you hear these two stories i’m pretty sure you’ll feel like it’s for the best that I’m not on the roads..

I’m an anxious person when it comes to cars. My sister can back me up on this. Whenever she breaks a little too hard I have slight panic attack. I’m the same whatever car I’m in, but usually i’m able to gain composure as I don’t feel it’s my place to comment on someones driving since I don’t actually hold a license myself. So, of course this extended to when I was behind the wheel. I managed a few laps around the same car park I learned to ride my bike in before I had to set out on the road. Not far from my parents house there is a round about and I could feel my heart racing as I approached it… so much so when I saw a space just before the junction I pulled in, opened the car door (into the road might I add), jumped out and walked home. I didn’t even glance back. I was so humiliated by this that I never called this instructor again and approached a new one instead. I managed four more lessons before deciding that for the time being I’d rather spend my money on clothes. I guess in a way, I regret not doing it when I had very little money worries.. however there is another story that happened a few months after I decided not to have anymore lessons, this is a story I never talk about because it brings so much rage to my father, still.. after 10 years..

I reversed the car into a wall.

Yeah, you read that right. My dad asked me to back up the car for him and I was concentrating so much on which peddle to pushed I didn’t hear him say stop. It was only a slight bump, minimal scratching but he was pretty mad at me. Even if I did want to continue learning to drive I doubt he’d allow me out in his precious cars again! Although we can all laugh about the fact I abandoned the car on my first outing, we cannot joke about the reversing thing. Although my mum and I can since she reversed into the same wall a few years later.. OOPS!

Lets face it, all young drivers have similar stories. Learning to drive isn’t a piece of cake these days like it used to be, with more and more people out on the road. And it’s not just about actually driving these days. You need to know about your car. You need to know about your tyres, and about getting a brake check and even an oil change. It’s not just memorising the high way code, and this just adds on the pressure for young drivers. If you’re thinking about driving Kwik Fit have put together a Tyre Challenge quiz to test what you already know before getting your first car. I managed 7/10.