One of my last published posts, Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone, mentioned that I had been learning to drive, and I thought I better give a little update on that.
I passed my driving test! Then I bought a car. All in the same day. It was a pretty overwhelming day, but one of the most exciting to date. Driving tests in the UAE are different to back home, and when describing it to friends I was met with a lot of disbelief at how quick the actual test was. I was piled onto a bus with about 20 other ladies on the morning, and we took it in turns to take our 3-4 minute test, which consisted of a roundabout, changing lanes, and then an emergency stop on the side of the road. I tried to get my test off to a good start with a breezy “good morning!” to the policeman and woman in the car, to which the policewoman visibly rolled her eyes. Charm wasn’t going to work this time. However, my driving obviously was good enough and after the quickest test ever, I found out I had passed, by text message. Welcome to 2019. I must say that whilst the test itself is super quick, the process leading up to it is not, and there are a number of ‘levels’ you must pass before moving on to the next one; including 8 hours of theory lessons, 14 hours of driving in the school, a parking test, and then 20 hours of lessons on the road. There is no way to get to the actual test without being prepared, and I feel like the test itself is simply a formality.
After finding out that I had passed, I headed off to the vehicle registration centre to put my new car into my name and sort out the insurance. It was the busiest day of adulting I have ever done, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to just call my Mum up and ask her to come along and hold my hand. Do we ever grow out of that? And so, on 11th April, I became a driver and a car owner all in one day.
There isn’t much to this post other than me proudly announcing something I achieved, but I wanted to write about it because it was the first big accomplishment I’d had in a while. It’s funny, but when you become an adult and leave school and adolescence behind, you sort of stop having big achievements happen to you regularly. Exams at school, degrees at university (though I never did that myself)… life just becomes a bit unexciting when it comes to milestones like that, or so I’ve found. One of my goals for 2019 was to learn how to drive, and I’m extremely proud that I achieved it in a matter of months. I now have no idea how I ever survived without my car, and question why it took me so long to get it done!
See you on the roads.
An Open Book 