So, another thing on my list of "30 Things Before 30" was to learn how to drive stick shift; Andrea and I thought it might come in handy for whenever we made it on the Amazing Race.
Some people like sitting behind the wheel... I'm not one of them. Driving just isn't one of my favorite things to do. When I drive, my focus is on one thing: the road. I don't like having passengers in my car, because I can never turn and talk to them while driving, for fear of taking my eyes off the road. I typically can't do more than one thing at a time when I'm behind the wheel.
So, on Wednesday, I learned how to drive stick shift. Cole came over and offered his car and time for my driving lesson. He drove us to the middle school near my condo, and gave me a thorough tutorial on what I needed to do in order to drive a standard. While I typically pride myself on being a quick learner, everything he told me went way over my head... it might've had to do with my negative mindset going into this that things would not go well. He used a few analogies, which were helpful, but I'd forgotten most of it by the time I got behind the wheel. And, although I had very little faith in my ability to manage the clutch/brake/gas at the same time that I was shifting gears, it somehow happened. Don't get me wrong... there were several stalls during my drive around the parking lot and, after I finished my full throttle hee hee haw haw, Cole talked me through all of it. And, just when I thought I was able say that I could "drive stick," my one last test was to drive on the road. Luckily, it was later in the night, and there weren't many cars around, but I did it (without stalling)! Despite a few hitches, leading to moments of frustration on my end, it was all well worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment