How I did it: Perseverence I think is the main word. Driving has been one of my biggest fears for as long as I can remember because I lacked the confidence in myself. I put it off for a year and then my Auntie applied for my license for me and I signed the form. I wasn't bothered about it. Then I started lessons in the summer after my eighteenth birthday when a wave of willing hit me and I found a driving school with a good reputation.

My first instructor, a stout man called Keith who pretty much just sat me in the driving seat and said "Drive"... was about as much use as cleaning the windscreen with sandpaper. He used my lessons to sit there and watch the scenery not to help me. Eventually he left the company under a cloud of smoke and about four weeks later they assigned me another man from the same company.

He was what will now and forever more be known as GREMLIN-MAN... he refused to let me change the seating positions in his car, the car smelled something awful... I'm certain there was a dead body decomposing in his boot. AND he spoke to me like I was an incompetent idiot. He even dared to say that I would never pass the test as I was a young blonde woman. He thoroughly knocked me confidence and made me feel like I would never do it. Soooo, I quit driving for nearly half a year.

Then last autumn my Auntie came along and booked me an appointment with a woman driving instructor who had put everyone she knew through the test. She came along and said instantly that I was better than I thought, she explained the thought processes so I knew how to be safer and listened to my whinging about it. Eventually I put in for my tests and although I didn't pass first time as the nerves took hold and I stalled three times before I even left the test centre :P... the second time I was on form and I passed. I came out looking, I imagine, rather shell shocked as I hadn't expected to pass... BUT... I did. It proved to me that I can do anything I want and I should never let anyone else tell me otherwise!

Lessons & tips:

• Have belief in yourself!
  
• Go with a trained teacher
  
• Find an instructor who puts you at ease and explains things in a way that you understand. If you're not comfortable with any aspect of their teaching DO something about it! Remember... you're paying them!!!!

Oct 27, 2008, 02:58AM PDT | 6 comments | 34 cheers