Will Loewen, Driving Instructor
A while ago I promised my sister that I would let her use my car to practice driving. Those of you who know me best know to expect promises slowly fulfilled. With her drive test looming, I finally dropped in, almost daily for the last week, so that she could get some practice in.

I now sympathize a bit with my dad for getting stressed out like he did when he was teaching me to drive. I was also relieved that I resembled my dad, who would get angry/scared and let me know immediately, rather than my mom, who would just sit in the other seat petrified (I was a good driver, but still their stress was natural). I never yelled, but my "instructions" were sometimes more emotional than normal. I wasn't just getting worked up about our physical safety, or about the structural integrity of my car, but also about her getting the point, when I've said the same thing a whole bunch of times. It's also hard to give calm and collected advice in a situation where you sense an impending accident.

Most of the practice sessions went pretty well, and I was pretty optimistic about today's test. Then in the final session, in a smaller car that we had borrowed for the occasion, there were some stressful times around a set of failed parallel parking attempts. We went for lunch, and had a nice chat at KFC, which I hoped would calm her nerves, to no avail.

She was visibly pretty nervous, and with a quick prayer (an appeal for both grace and peace of mind), I went in to wait, while she waited for the tester to meet her in the car.

I was interrupted from reading a copy of the Cambridge Times (one of those part-newspaper, part-excuse to send out flyers), by Martha saying, "So I didn't make it, eh." It seemed odd to me that she would say it without a hint of negative emotion like she did. I responded by saying, "Oh, you didn't?", and I readied myself to console her further, when she laughed and said, "I was just kidding!" I think I was more excited than she was. So, while it was successful, I'm not sure I'll try to venture into that world for another little while.

Anyway, way to go Martha!

   [ posted by William @ 9:19 PM ]