Driving 101

A few hours ago I took my first “driving lesson” since my neurologist told me I could drive. I say “driving lesson” because I just took to the wheel when the car was in the building’s parking lot and drove it down to the indoor parking.

I sat down, moved the seat a little bit forward, the person who was driving before is a little bit taller than me. Then I pulled the emergency off and put the car in drive. I thought I was doing a good job, I remembered to do all the things the driving instructor told me back when I was 16 told me but I wasn’t sure which was the accelerator and the brake. It’s not that I didn’t know, I just didn’t remember.

As soon as I figured that out I started moving, really slowly but we were moving. To get to the indoor parking lot you have to go down a ramp, ramp with a curve, which was kind of nerve wrecking but at least it has a mirror where you can see if there’s a car coming in the other direction. I was going a little too fast on there because I was stepping on the accelerator, not the break; I forgot there’s a thing called gravity helping there.

Once I let go of the accelerator and was n the indoor parking lot it was a little bit easier because it was just a straight line with only a few street bumps to make sure you don’t go too fast, it is a parking lot after all, but I was going really slowly just to be safe. When I got to our spot I was able to drive it in directly between the lines, not hitting the column next to it. I was lucky there were no cars on either side because I have been worried about being able to park there.

I turned off the air conditioner, lights, put it in parking and turned it off. Then as I got off I checked if it was between the lines, not hitting anything; then I took some pictures of my amazing parking and celebrated my accomplishment.
My driving instructor, Jose, told me I did a very good job for not driving in 5 years and gave me a C. I am very happy with my C, I got a passing grade and I didn’t expect anything more, I mean I didn’t remember which was the brake and the accelerator and I was hitting the accelerator while going down a ramp.

I am very happy with the job I did today, even if it was small and I’m ready for next time!