Longing for a License

“Dad can you take us to the movies tonight?” “Mom, can you take me to the mall for a few hours?”After a mere 16 years, these words will all be put to rest when you finally pass that driving test! The freedom you have when you get your license will open up a whole new opportunity for plans, taking care of errands and running out at the spur of the moment to be with your friends. But wait, we can’t forget that you actually have to get your license before all of this can happen!

The six or so weeks leading up to take the test can be even more nerve-wracking than the test itself. You think you may have only told your closest friends when your test is, but before you know it, the entire school is wishing you good luck. So at this point, you think that it will make no difference by putting it on your Facebook status. You receive 15 comments on it, and 20 “likes” from various friends and acquaintances. You keep getting more and more excited as you count down from six weeks, to three weeks, to five days. Now, that just increased the pressure to pass by about one million percent! You also may start to see who is “sucking up” a little bit to you, and who is being extra friendly in the hallway—thinking in the back of their minds that they can hopefully get a ride with you sometime soon.

So you have the biggest weekend plans of the year riding, no pun intended, on this test. The entire school is biting its fingers waiting to hear the results, and you cannot wait a second longer to have all of the freedom—and the car keys. But before you can say the word “go,” you fail.

So, what now? I guess it’s back to asking mom and dad to give up part of their weekend to drive you around, and some new people might stop saying “hi” to you in the hall. But you also have to face more than 500 Facebook friends and IM’s from people who are saying sorry. Little do they know, they are only making it worse. You feel like the whole world is driving by. But then you slowly start to get your personality back and realize that you can schedule another appointment. You just have to hope for lucky No. 2.

You may be surprised to hear that I don’t even have my permit yet, but one of my best friends had an experience just like it. A friend so close that you find yourself feeling like her life is yours, and yours is hers. She was in tears when she didn’t get her license. There was so much hype about it, which made it even worse when she didn’t pass. Fortunately, she has already scheduled another appointment and will hopefully be more ready than ever this time.

So, some lessons my friend learned from this experience for next time: Do not tell a single soul the next time you schedule a test. Be underconfident, just in case you may not pass again. And throw all of your nerves out the window before getting anywhere near the driving center. I hope my friend keeps these things in the back of her mind. All we can do is hope for the best for the next test. After all, we both have a lot riding on this one because I can’t even qualify for my permit until July!