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mahakaliSS_MahaDurga

mahakaliSS_MahaDurga

Visionary
Apr 2, 2020
2,404
been forced to take driver's lesson. absolutely hate it, clearly lack the ability.

do you drive? if so, do you think it's a must? if no, why?
Yes. I hated it, had to take almost 60 hours of lessons because I kept failing my driving test (I passed on my 4th attempt), and I had crippling anxiety when I started driving my own car; but it was all worth it. I enjoy driving now and I would feel crippled without a car. Go for it! You'll enjoy it one day.
 
ecmnesia

ecmnesia

the only thing humans are equal in is death
Aug 30, 2020
767
Yes. I hated it, had to take almost 60 hours of lessons because I kept failing my driving test (I passed on my 4th attempt), and I had crippling anxiety when I started driving my own car; but it was all worth it. I enjoy driving now and I would feel crippled without a car. Go for it! You'll enjoy it one day.
guess I'll give it a little more effort. fucking tired of hearing the instructor tell me I suck :p
 
waterstrider

waterstrider

cold
Nov 29, 2020
400
Yes. I hated it, had to take almost 60 hours of lessons because I kept failing my driving test (I passed on my 4th attempt), and I had crippling anxiety when I started driving my own car; but it was all worth it. I enjoy driving now and I would feel crippled without a car. Go for it! You'll enjoy it one day.
I have had a similar experience...had a lot of anxiety during those driving lessons on account of being watched/judged. Failed the test once and would have failed again but the second time around it was the end of this one teachers shift and he did not care as much about my mistakes anymore and just wanted the whole thing to be over (thank god).
Now that I've got my license and grown accustomed to driving - it's awesome.
Gives me a lot of freedom I wouldn't want to miss out on!
Especially since I live in a rural area.
 
Gnip

Gnip

Bill the Cat
Oct 10, 2020
621
Yes, I received excellent driver's education instruction at my small high school, which was objectively the most valuable public service which schools provided when I was a student. (Not one driving student taught by my instructor was ever at fault in a fatal accident, and he taught teenagers how to drive for over 40 years.) Within a year, I also obtained my motorcycle license, having grown up riding Honda trail minibikes through the woods.

Unfortunately while I was trying to learn how to drive cars and earn my license, my brain diseased and histrionic father decided he wanted to play "Daddy" and try to instruct me. He would scream, panic and hit me without warning while I was behind the wheel at age 15, constantly threatening and terrorizing me and sometimes putting the entire family at risk with his deranged and oblivious violent drama queen hysterics whenever he forced me to take the wheel with himself in the passenger side seat, often while blasting his own music at full volume. He has always been the precise opposite of what a competent elementary school teacher and elementary school principal should be. (My mother was an excellent teacher, and so was my father's mother, who taught me how to drive her 1965 Pontiac GTO. My brothers and sister were all protected from the terrors my father forcibly subjected me to when I was trying to learn how to drive.)

I do have a perfect driving record, but thanks to my father, I've always hated driving and always will. However, in my rural area, driving is a necessity, and I own a car I bought brand new and have been very happy with. However, if I were to lose that car for some reason and find myself severely cash strapped, I might use apply my motorcycle license in obtaining a motor scooter for getting around and transporting smaller items.
 
Good4Nothing

Good4Nothing

Unlovable
May 8, 2020
1,865
Everyone's clumsy when they first start driving. I thought I'd never get the hang of it. Been driving 30 years now and only been in one minor accident. I'm an excellent driver now. Once you've got the hang of horsing around a ton of steel watch some defensive driving videos on YouTube.
 
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Ghost2211

Archangel
Jan 20, 2020
6,024
Driving becomes much less necessary if you live in a highly accessible area. I can't drive nor will I ever be able to, so I have to plan on living in very accessible neighborhoods mostly in the heart of cities. This of course makes cost-of-living higher. Long story short driving tends to be pretty important to function.
 
_Kaira_

_Kaira_

This Isn't Fine
Oct 2, 2020
826
I have a license. Made lots of mistakes and got a pass with a "needs more practice" advice to my dad. Should I drive? With my panic problems and partial blindness (severe astigmatism in one eye, pretty much useless even with strong prescription glasses)? Nah.
 
Gnip

Gnip

Bill the Cat
Oct 10, 2020
621
What I do like to be able to do (and both my girlfriends do as well) is drive a stick shift with manual clutch as proficiently as a vehicle with automatic transmission. Best of all, none of my younger relatives has any idea how to drive a stick shift, so they never ask to borrow my car (which is also the first vehicle I have ever owned with power steering).

The girlfriend who lives nearest to me recently bought the final model of Subaru Forester which will come equipped with a six speed stick shift. She lives on an isolated back country dirt road, so she needs high clearance (and you can roll a ten pin bowling ball underneath her transmission) and she likes the much smoother driving which a stick shift manual transmission provides on paved roads.

I like the more active participation in the driving process a stick shift entails. I do not ride my clutch, which has always spared them, and I downshift to slow down when the speed limits are reduced or I am driving downhill, to avoid wearing on my brakes. (We driver's education students were taught that excellent drivers rarely need to use their brakes or clutches.)

Electronics do not belong in a car, let alone something which talks to me. I have a mind, eyes and a brain of my own, and know how to drive defensively, with caution to avoid getting hit from behind or from the side or otherwise where the other driver would be at fault. I prefer to have no collisions at all, and have had none since an 18 wheel tractor trailer slammed into me from behind on black ice during a winter storm about 25 years ago.

By far, the hardest standard driving maneuver for me to execute is parallel parking, since there are very few such parking spaces of that type where i live.

Recently, because of the bone spurs in my back and neck causing pinched nerves, I qualified for wheelchair logo handicap parking license plates, so I can enjoy my pick of the best parking spaces without having to pay into a meter or at a kiosk, and have a space with excellent room and visibility for backing out of.
Driving is fun

It certainly should be fun. I'd be driving tons more than I have if my father hadn't been such a stupid asshole in pretending to teach me how. (Instead, all he did was make me paranoid about into getting into accidents. As it happens, my old man is an incompetent driver who has been in a number of accidents and collisions.)
 
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Deleted member 1465

_
Jul 31, 2018
6,921
I miss driving. I've never felt so relaxed and focused as when behind the wheel. It was the only time I could comfortably listen to music. I loved the ebb and flow of the motorway and throwing it into the bends on well known country roads. I had a good relationship with my mechanic, who used to let me watch and make the tea as he showed me what he was doing to the car.

I had to get rid of the car and now I don't drive. I cried when it went and even now I feel like a part of me is missing. For me it was very necessary at the time, but it was also something I enjoyed and was interested in. It was power and control and freedom all rolled into one.
 
M

malti276

bye
Nov 15, 2020
39
been forced to take driver's lesson. absolutely hate it, clearly lack the ability.
A saying I've heard is that first you pass your test, then you learn to drive. You can gain more confidence with practice when you're alone and able to do it at your own pace. Sorry your instructor is being rude to you. I had to switch instructors for similar reasons. I really enjoy driving.
 
Gnip

Gnip

Bill the Cat
Oct 10, 2020
621
seems like the requirement for being a driving instructor is graduating as an asshole

I was lucky in that regard, and I knew it, but my father did everything he could to make up for the fact that my driving instructor was so relaxed and laid back that he actually took naps while his students were driving.

Within the last several months, my mother has finally taken the keys away from my father because he was banging up the family Buick so much with dents and scrapes and stupid accidents, just like he did when he was a teenager and in his 20's. So now he's completely dependent on my mother to drive him around if he wants to go anywhere.

Too bad he treated me like shit when I was trying to learn how to drive. What goes around comes around sometimes, and I don't want to drive my father anywhere because of how he abused me back then. An asshole and an idiot.
 
D

Deleted member 1465

_
Jul 31, 2018
6,921
A saying I've heard is that first you pass your test, then you learn to drive.
That's true. I was useless when I first passed and didn't feel competent until I got my second car.

@ecmnesia sorry, I just reread my previous post then your OP and I made it all about me, so sorry. If you can pass the test, you don't have to drive (unless you need to). I didn't drive for years after my test because I couldn't afford it. Later on when I could get a car, I actually had a few refresher lessons, including lessons on the motorway for which I was then legal too.

Edit: just read your last post and I'm guessing you are now being forced to drive. That puts the pressure on I suppose.
 
D

Deleted member 1465

_
Jul 31, 2018
6,921
My favourite time to drive on the motorway was on Christmas Day morning. Virtually empty. No trucks whatsoever. I used to pretend there were cars there so I could fake over take just for a laugh. The guys watching the cameras must have thought that was well odd. Mind you, I also had Radio Cymru on so I wouldn't hear any more Christmas songs. Well, I did , but they were all in Welsh so I couldn't understand a word.
 
ecmnesia

ecmnesia

the only thing humans are equal in is death
Aug 30, 2020
767
i didn't really want to learn how to drive, honestly never felt desire to do so, but as the oldest and the only one who is yet to get a license I was "gently encouraged" to seek it.

i am almost completely the 20 required lessons and i still suck with the stick, and basically everything. but is not like i can give up either, since a lot of money was wasted on it.

hope things get better once and if I am able to pass the test, i swear i lose ten years worth of life expectancy each class.

thanks for all the comments guys :hug:
 
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greebo6

Enlightened
Sep 11, 2020
1,480
I can drive but do not have a car because of the cost. Just can't afford to get one.
I enjoy driving and I miss being able to go for a drive and the convenience of a car very much.
Its frustrating.
 
Dr Iron Arc

Dr Iron Arc

Into the Unknown
Feb 10, 2020
18,423
I can drive and have a car. I first got my license when I was 18 but didn't use it much at all until I was around 21. I do enjoy the freedom and independence driving by myself can offer and when I'm alone I can crank music up really loud and no one can stop me. Being on the open freeway can be cathartic sometimes.

That said, heavy traffic and trying to find parking are miserable to deal with and the fear of getting in an accident can also be overbearing sometimes which is why I actually drive really slowly a lot of the time.
 
PNKPNDA

PNKPNDA

Member
Mar 8, 2020
70
i passed my test like a year ago and used to hate driving lessons so much, the anxiety and awkwardness was horrible- my driving instructor even said she didnt think i would pass lol it was a miracle tbf- anyways i feel it depends where you are and how easy things are to get to. i couldnt live without my car now but i feel you have to be actually wanting to get driving for you to pass like no point doing all the lessons if you dont feel totally ready or wanting to drive - also its bare expensive but i do think it is a good thing to have
 
D

DJJE

Member
Sep 29, 2020
61
been forced to take driver's lesson. absolutely hate it, clearly lack the ability.

do you drive? if so, do you think it's a must? if no, why?

I find my friends that haven't learnt to drive, or learnt to drive late found it more difficult, and access to a car helps with just about everything in life. Easier to get too and from college, more options for jobs, more options where to live, easier to get away for a few days, join sports teams or a band.

You've only got to learn once. But if you are being forced, try and focus on a reason why having a car will be beneficial to your life.