I Passed My Practical Driving Test!

Well I did something amazing on Friday 25th April... I passed my Practical Driving Test on my 2nd try!
Woohoo!
I am so chuffed and pleased with myself that I feel like I've levelled up in life and am now ready to get behind the wheel and see where life goes from there.
I know that opening sentence was a bit "in your face" but I don't mean for it to come across that way! Here I want to tell you how driving has been a big step for me in my life and how it all felt and what I had to do in order to receive that Certificate!

Driving has been a real journey for me for the last 3 years. I began learning to drive a car back in September 2012, where I was learning to drive a new Ford Fiesta and my instructor was a woman and shall remain Anonymous. I learned the basics, creeped forward down the road and within a month or so, I was cruising around Horsham and later Crawley town learning the rules of the road and listening very carefully to her instructions and teachings.

Around January 2013, I decided it was time to begin learning The Highway Code and prepare myself to take the Theory Test! It wasn't so easy picking up a book that looked huge and felt heavy, when it was only like 180ish pages, full of diagrams, pictures, signs and rules. I read the thing twice and thought maybe I could do practise tests? Because I liked doing practise GCSE Maths tests back in Collyers when I re-took GCSE and got my C in the end!
So anyway, I found an App on my iPhone through her, and that little thing saved my life. It was all multiple choice tests and I could take them anytime and didn't require Wi-Fi connection! So during my lunch breaks at work or anywhere I was re-taking tests over and over again and it felt relieving because there and then I recognised past questions and soon I got the hang of it. But I realised I needed to prepare myself for the other part of the Theory Test, The Hazard Perception Test! So I found a similar App and on my phone, I tapped away on actual videos and did my best to react and notice all the hazards during those 20 videos. I just got good marks on almost all the tests through my first try and well let's face it, after seeing the video once, there's not much point in re-taking them over and over again if you already know whats coming?!
So throughout January till April, I took I think it was like 40-50 practise theory tests and after just passing half of those trys, I decided it was time to face the music and take the Theory Test!
Luckily I wasn't alone, a friend called Martin, booked the same test on the same day as me and would you believe it... we both passed on the line together! YEAH!

Now! By June 2013, I figured it was time to give the Practical Driving Test a shot. However she still thought I needed some more practise! Really? 9 months of driving safely and that's still not good enough? Dad encouraged me to take it and maybe even prove her wrong... so I did! And it's a day I can't ever forget!
It all happened at the end of June, I got to the Pease Pottage Test Centre ready to give it my all! I had asked her a few weeks before the test "would you please sit in the back seat during the test so I will feel more comfortable?" She had no problem with that, but come the day of the test, when I was asked by the Driving Examiner "Do you want your instructor with you on the test?" She looked at me with a face saying "not really feeling like it". So I had no choice but to decline. That aside, I got in the car with the Examiner, answered the Show Me and Tell Me questions and then it hit me! I didn't have the keys to the car! I ran back into the Test Centre and shouted "Where are the keys, ***?" She had them next to her as if she hadn't noticed! I felt betrayed or sabotaged and I have no idea if this was all a freak accident or planned, but after grabbing the keys, I started to cry in embarrassment as I got back in the car with my Examiner and took on the test.
As you can guess, I failed! I got loads of minors which I won't go into detail about. But to be fair, I couldn't understand the Examiner's northern accent that well and I started the test as if I had been stabbed *metaphorically speaking*.
So after the test and explaining it to my parents, I never heard and spoke to her again!

3 months later and Dad found me another instructor who was an old friend to him, Rob. A nice man who was a good teacher but it didn't really work out for me because he was hardly ever available and I only got roughly 4 lesson out of him every week and a half or 2 weeks. I did appreciate his teachings but I wanted to get back on schedule and it just didn't work out sadly.

Luckily my last instructor helped me get back in a car and regain my confidence and help me reach the end of my long journey! My mum's colleague from work, gave her a friend of the families number and by November 2013, Peter Bellamy was my new instructor!
Me and him took the lessons till January 2014 during my lunch breaks at work. It was a hard at first getting the feel and control with this slightly older Ford Fiesta, but I nailed it by December! I told Peter everything and he helped prove that I can drive safely and that it would all work out in the end. Anyway at the beginning of January 2014, we decided to move onto Saturdays doing 2 hour drives. It worked out great during those 4 months and I felt a whole lot better doing more time behind the wheel and look at me now?! A year later and I got ready to regain my confidence and get ready to go back and re-take the Practical Driving Test, I was worried like hell.
But on Friday last week, it was raining like mad (despite the whole week being cloudy sunny weather), of all days to be raining?! But I remained calm, read the Show Me, Tell Me question paper again and prepared myself for the oncoming storm. I stepped inside the Test Centre with Peter and had a new and nicer Examiner and even though the weather was awful, I took it and ended the drive calmly and was rewarded with the sentence I thought I wouldn't hear on that day "You'll be pleased to know, you have passed!"
My mouth dropped open (I was going to act professional but that plan faded away), I put on a huge grin and felt tears developing in my eyes, I must have said "Thank you" 5 times to the Examiner and he was pleased I passed too as was Peter, who by the way came into the car with me without question as I had asked him 2 weeks before the test and he agreed!

That day felt like a heavy weight had been lifted because I earned it! I was glad to have my photo taken by Peter for his Facebook Page and show I had passed as without his help I would not be in this place.
Let me tell you, when I took that photo of my Driving Certificate, I have never felt this popular on my Facebook in forever. Within 4 days my picture had received just over 120 likes and 30+ comments (which I replied to all so that makes it 60+ comments really).


It was terrifying, amazing, thrilling and tough learning to drive for me, because I am putting my skills to the test and am on the road where anything can happen. And now I have to go car hunting pretty soon, ugh it's overwhelming already figuring out what car looks good, which module to get, the insurance and worrying about independant driving for the first time. But I know all this can be conquered by taking it on and practising on my own around my neighbourhood (once I get a car in the end). My dream car would be an Audi R8, but for a first car, I like the look of an old Vauxhall Corsa or a Volkswagen Polo! But now I've been told to go for a new kind of car so that I could avoid being taxed to death, as if thing's aren't indecisive enough?!


So anyway this ends my big story on learning to drive. It's a challenge, so I hope you all take it head on too! Learn however way you feel comfortable with and don't try to rush it, take your time and understand that thing's may not go according to plan so easily (you might need more practise like I did).
But now here's comes the fun part, buying a car and learning to become a safe driver on the roads!
So that's another item ticked off my Bucket List. Now got to keep going, find love, skydive etc and whatever else I choose to do with my life (if I survive the Skydive in June that is!)