Driving Lessons

[disalarming]

I mentioned needing to get my driver’s permit in early May, in order for me to take my driving lessons and start the process of getting my driver’s license. Well, I got the permit in mid-May, and I finished up my initial hours with my driving instructor yesterday. Hopefully I can get my license this summer, as that was the plan when I was booking my driving lessons for this month!

At 18, it’s unusual for me to not have my license when the driving age is 16/17 in the US. US public transport is infamous for being crappy and/or non-existent, so countless teens go to the DMV on their 16th birthdays to get their driver’s licenses. However, I moved to the US from Australia right before I turned 16, and there was so much going on in my life that learning how to drive in addition to dealing with everything else really wasn’t an option. Plus, Americans drive on the right side of the road and Australians drive on the left, and I had to deal with getting used to the change in driving direction too!

I turned 16 the first summer I was in Chicago, so the tentative plan for my license was to get it the next summer, the summer of 2007. However, that summer was when I went to France on my exchange trip, so then I thought I would get my license the next year. Yet I was traveling again in the summer of 2008, this time to China. By then, I knew the earliest I could get my license was the summer of 2009, because I was living away from home in the 2008-2009 academic year without any access to a car, so there was no way I could learn how to drive during the school year.

Now that the summer of 2009 is here, I am well on my way to getting my license. The initial hours are done, so now I just need to practice driving lots before I go and take the driver’s license test. Driving is not as hard as I thought it would be, which is a relief, and I know the driving exam is not hard as I did a practice run through it twice with my driving instructor. However, people on the road are idiots! Now that I know the rules of the road, it’s alarming to see how many people blatantly disregard them and put everyone’s safety in jeopardy!

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.