I Initially wanted to do my drivers license in automatic because when my dad taught me how to drive with manual, he failed miserably. Simply because he is the worst teacher ever. He''s impatient and was changing the gears for me , which technically is not how you drive. My dad enrolled me into diving school, for a vigorous everyday lesson at 11:00, I was practicing with a manual car. 🚕🚗

During my evaluation the instructor assessed that I could drive but that I had a few things to work on. He didn't mention what but it was basically my steering, my observation - which i feel is unnecessary actually - and then the usual parking and stuff. He was a great teacher, extremely patient and we'd laugh at a lot of things together. It didn't feel formal, technical or strict type of vibes - I could be myself and that's what I liked.
Naturally, I'm a fast learner so, I grasped the different parking  - left parallel, right parallel, corridor etc - quickly and everyday we practiced, my confidence would soar.  Obviously it wasn't all daisy walkways and happy times. There was once a situation where I was stuck at a robot for about a solid ten minutes, with motorists behind me infuriated and hooting ruthlessly  -which didn't help one bit because it only freaked me out.

Just a side note to motorists: DON'T EVER hoot out of anger at a learner driver on the road. It's extremely stressful and the bumper stickers DO SAY : PLEASE BE PATIENT. SO WHAT if I made you miss the green robot? Life isn't about robots. bottom line is you're gonna get to your destination.

That was me expressing a bit of my road rage in the healthiest way possible - written text.☝

Back to the story. I was starting the car but because I couldn't grasp the control (the balancing of the clutch and the accelerator) the car shut down and "bounced". After several tries I began to laugh Because, I mean... WHAT VOODO WAS THAT?? I had grasped the control three robots ago. My instructor asked - in a joking manner - if we were going to stay there the whole two hours of our lesson. I looked at him briefly and started to laugh. like really hard and so did he. It was in that moment of our hysterical laughter that I calmed down and did the control right.

That was fortunately not the last of the mini-breakdowns in the middle of the road, there were a couple after that but not as long as the first one.

Now, to get to the gist of this post? well, I learnt  -through repeating parking and three point turns- that one should never give up on themselves. I know this sounds suuuper cliche but when you realise it, it hits you. Some days, I'd get so annoyed and tired at doing the same thing over and over not realizing that it's part of perfecting my driving.

Lesson: You perfect your craft each time you fail and each time you practice.