I passed my driving test!

Yep! On January 2nd I passed my first driving test with 6 minors. I'm so proud of myself for getting this far and I can't wait until I can go for my first solo drive!

On the test I was quite calm which seems odd looking back - I think it came down to knowing and believing that I was ready, and also being comfortable with the car. It seems like such a small detail but that familiarity really helped me to relax. Another thing that helped a little (I feel really mean for saying this) was watching the learner in front of me mess up the bay park as we got to the test centre, for me to then do one perfectly. I was a bit conflicted about getting a confidence boost at another person's extent, but hey, it worked!

I very nearly failed on two accounts that were luckily only minors - the emergency stop and a traffic light. Firstly, the emergency stop - and I'd never done this before in all of my time learning - when the examiner gave the signal, what should I do but whack my foot down on the accelerator. Considering that making the car rush forward is the opposite idea of the emergency stop, it's a good job I switched pedals fairly quickly. Oops. To be honest with you, I just prayed that he hadn't noticed (don't be silly Kate) and kept going. Not two minutes later, I was approaching a set of lights that changed to amber. I won't lie, I had plenty of time to stop but for some reason my head said "speed up!" - I bet that light changed the second after I'd gone through. It was a close one. At the end of the test the examiner said "okay, you've passed...but there were some things that weren't ideal". Hmm. Oh well. A pass is a pass!

After that the test went really smoothly. Interestingly, Alex said he had some weird telepathic vibe sometime towards the end of my test that woke him up and he thought I'd passed already. Creepy? A bit.

I know this might come as a bit of a shock to those of you who've been keeping up with my progress over the past few months, but I actually really enjoyed my lessons towards the end and I gained so much confidence from it. I'm not sure when it happened, maybe when my instructor said it was more like being chauffeured than teaching, but I realised that I wasn't really nervous any more. Everything sped up after that point!

If you're thinking about learning to drive, I would say find a great instructor and just go for it. Your instructor is more important than you think - it's so much better to be taught by someone that you get along with, that you feel comfortable with, and who knows what they're talking about. As I've said, I didn't want to learn to start with but I'm so glad that I did. I've now gained a skill that'll stay with me for life, and it only took a few months - just try it!