I don't drive. My husband has been driving me around for years, ever since we moved to Canada, really. The worst part is? I absolutely love driving. And while my husband and I quite enjoy doing everything together, I dream of being comfortable on the road and completely independent.
You see, I got my licence in 2007, before all of my friends. I was studying in Canada - you don't really need a to learn how to drive in Paris - and I wasn't scared. The tricky part is that I learned how to drive by taking 15 hour-long lessons with a teacher, on an automatic car. And then I moved back to Paris and stopped driving for years. Everyone had standard cars in Europe, besides I really didn't need to. Fast forward a few years, I moved to Canada, my husband drives a standard and I don't know how to drive it, so I don't. I learn the basics by going around the block but since I haven't driven in years aside from little stunts on the freeway here and there, I am scared to death. Then we moved to Halifax, which was all hills, so I completely stopped trying.
And here I am. Needing badly to get around, no money for a new car and feeling like an idiot. I am slowly re-learning to conquer the stick shift. But I feel like I have to re-learn everything else, too. Being in trafic, switching lanes, being a careful driver, all while trying to make sense of this gear switching thing. It is scary and frustrating but I promised to myself I would learn.
I can do it, right?
Of course you can do it!! It was pretty hard for me too, it was out of my habits, but this summer, in Ireland and with a standard car (plus drive on the right!), that was when something clicked, that freed me a great deal, and now I have no fear anymore. At first you have to make an effort, it is weird and unusual, but there comes a time when you will enter into a car like you brush your teeth, you will no longer think about bad things, because you will have acquired the good reflexes l'air de rien! ;)
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