I'm learning how to drive for the first time ever. I'm older than a lot of people are when they learn how to drive, for sure, but it it must be clear that I have never had any reason to drive until now. I suppose that's not entirely true, but it was for a long time. To start with, up north, back in good old Rhode Island, the bus system is awesome and could get me wherever I needed to go. When I was a YMCA lifeguard Jess and I would walk the mile or so to the bus stop every morning at 7:00am to get to work by 8:00am and it never failed us (except the first day we did it when the bus broke down before it got to our stop and we were forced to get a ride from our mother, thereby putting us in a slight state of terror every time the bus was a few minutes late). The high school we attended was less than a mile away and Jess and I happily walked there in the sun, rain, and snow. Was it awesome? No. Did we survive? Sure! In fact, lots of places from the local library to the Cumberland Farms we bought milk at were within walking distance since we lived in a small town. For sure, there were places we couldn't get to without driving, but I just stayed home instead! Problem solved!
My sister and my methodology was not shared by our older brother Michael. As a 'young man seeking independence' he was gung-ho to learn how to drive! Mom began teaching him when he was 13 and by the time her was old enough to take Drivers Ed and get his permit he was an expert. He passed all his tests the first time he took them and was desperate to drive any chance he got. Looking back I wonder why my mother never took Jess and I out to drive. I suppose if she had offered we would have taken her up on it at the time and might have gotten our license at 16 just like our brother. There could be some underlying inherent sexism there, but I think it's more likely she just didn't want us driving. We were her babies after all, but also why bother! We weren't outwardly interested, so why bring it up herself? Michael was already a pain asking to drive all the time and borrowing the car for joy-rides with his friends so she might have decided it was a bad idea altogether to have two more drivers in the family.
So Michael got his license and we didn't but as I mentioned, he always had to borrow the car. There lies the most prominent reason I never got my license: Why get a license if I can't afford to buy a car? Getting one's license is a liberating experience. It's meant to open the whole world to you. But does it really do that if you're driving your mom's minivan? According to my brother, yes, according to me and Jess, no. After years of borrowing mom and dad's car though, Michael eventually saved up to buy his own vehicle - a super sweet sports car that looked like something out of Fast and Furious. That sounds great but I remind you again, I come from a poor family. My brother worked an indescribable number of hours in order to afford this used sports car, only to discover it would cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to afford the repairs she needed to be same. Then there was the matter of handling registration and license plates and the fact that he lived in Boston where no one drives cars so he just had to park in semi-permanently and it just looked like a big old mess to me. As he was doing all of this Jess and I had moved into our place literally on the same block as our university and the downtown area. While we have yet to try the bus system here as the southern buses are allegedly not as reliable as the ones up north, nothing we needed, or need really, is further than a bike ride away. Michael can have his car, I would say, I have everything I need as long as I have strong legs and an umbrella.
With all of this said and done, why have I chosen now to begin this license-acquiring process? The number one reason is because my mother has promised me her old car. Remember that minivan I mentioned earlier? That old ride is sort of set to be mine, but for complicated reasons. The van was in an accident that really only damaged the back bumper of the car but the insurance company said the car is old and sad and they would pay to have mom buy a new one instead of paying the repairs. So a new car was gotten for mom but the old car is still hanging around. Not worth enough to sell, my mother has informed me that the car is mine as long as it passes inspection. Complicated, but still solid enough to encourage me to get a license. The main reason I hadn't gotten one was because I couldn't afford a car, but with that issue resolved I am totally prepared to begin this strange and nerve-wracking process! Another reason, however, is my newfound desire for the convenience of a car. Like I said, everything I need is withing walking or bike-riding distance, but after three years of biking a mile home sometimes in pouring rain while weighed down with bags of groceries, I'm getting kind of tired. While my sister and I only pay about $15 every 2 weeks for groceries, you'd be surprised how much $15 worth of stuff from Save-A-Lots weighs. Especially milk. I am sick to death of the rope burns on my shoulders from that milk, cheese, and hot dog stuffed insulated cinch bag. I'm trying not to whine, but if you biked a mile carrying pounds of groceries every 2 weeks in the Floridian heat and rain for 3 years you'd probably be over it too. But a solution has been provided! A car would fix my problems astronomically! No longer would grocery shopping be an all-day event I have to plan for, but a quick trip I can fit into any days schedule! An additional, though less pressing bonus, will be the ability to drive Jess and I to the local Renaissance Faire instead of attempting to coerce her into coercing her kinda-sorta ex boyfriend into driving us, thereby forcing him to attend with us. It's not a necessity, but it sure would be nice!
Of note, despite the car being offered to Jess and I, I am the only one of us learning how to drive. My sister says she doesn't want to do it because driving frightens her, which is true, but there are other reasons as well. For one thing she why should she learn to drive if I'm going to already? She gets to get places via a car but doesn't have to actually drive it, sounds like a win-win to her. Additionally, my mother has a habit of turning anything that could be convenient to her into something absolutely convenient to her and even while practice driving for the first time she already had me driving her to do some errands around her gated community. Jess has no desire to do any more chores than she has to no matter if mom does usually live 2 hours away from us and has opted out of the whole driving process. As mentioned just now, I have begun doing practice driving around my moms gated 55+ community and while I was a little unsure at first, after only maybe 5 hours of practice I'm quite comfortable behind the wheel. After this many years of being relegated to shotgun because my sister wants to listen to music and force me to converse with the driver, I'm not exactly uneducated in the process of driving. I've also started reading the drivers handbook for Florida and I'm all set to get this license as quick as possible. There's no hurry in the general sense, but in the personal sense the rainy season has already begun here and the local Ren-Faire starts in November. Those are pretty good reasons as far as I can see to get this done in a hurry.
No comments:
Post a Comment