A big and exciting part of your life is when you get your license. You can finally drive on your own and go places without the parents having to tag along. I received my license on August 17, 2009, and I will never forget that day.
My alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. and I shot out of bed, thinking about Y-turns and how to parallel park perfectly. I had a twisting knot in my stomach from the nerves and had a headache from lack of sleep. I had dreamt about having the perfect driving test and had awoken every couple of hours with the test in my head.
There was just enough time to get dressed and head out the door with plenty of time to still practice the Rice Lake course. I was my mom’s fifth child she took to get the test, so she knew how it worked. I was upset and crabby that morning that my mom even thought I wasn’t going to pass (of course she didn’t tell me this until after I got my license).
We got to the DMV, and by this time I was so tired that no butterflies remained in my stomach, we filled out paper work and sat around waiting for my driving instructor. I was the first person to take the test that morning, so I was hoping the instructor wasn’t going too be to crabby like how everyone tells you they are.
Finally a little lady with grayish-blonde, curly hair came out. She had glasses on and read my name off her clip board with barely a smile. By then, I was already shaking and could barely remember my own name. I said my goodbyes to my mom like it was the last time I would see her again. She gave me a quick “good luck” and went to find a chair to wait.
We walked to my vehicle and I hopped in the driver’s seat of a big old Ford Expedition. Since the car was so big, I was hoping she wouldn’t make me parallel park because the rumor was that if you had a big car, they would pass that section of the driving test. I got in and she went to the front of the car. She asked me to turn on my blinkers and my low beam lights. I was so nervous that when she said to show her my high beams, I honked the horn instead. She jumped in fright and yelled for me to do the correct thing…turn on my high beam lights.
After the inspection, she got into my car and told me to drive out of the parking lot. It was going really good until she told me to parallel park. Maybe this was her way of getting back at me for the horn incident. I backed into the spot perfectly and was so relieved. I was anticipating the worst, but got through it successfully.
After about 20 minutes of driving, we pulled back into the parking lot and went to seek out my mom. I was waiting nervously as she told me what I did wrong. She then told me the news that I passed with 16 points off. That was a lot of points off, but at least I passed! It felt like a hundred pounds was lifted off of me! Next, I had to worry about my license picture. I completely forgot about how my face and hair looked so my picture looks like I literally just rolled out of bed. They handed me my license, and it felt like gold in my hands. I finally could drive.
Walking out of the DMV, my mom asked, “So, you wanna drive home?”
I chuckled and said, “No, I’m done driving for a while. It’s your turn.”