What’s something you’ve done that you never thought you could?

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One of my greatest accomplishments was learning how to drive.

Learning how to drive was difficult for me. Our driver’s ed teacher didn’t so much teach people how to drive as babysat the drivers who had already learned from their parents. My mother didn’t have the patience to take me driving, and I didn’t get the hang of it. I once put the car into the one mound of snow in an otherwise clean parking lot, and my mother had had enough.

In driver’s ed, I once made a left turn all the way off the street and into a deli parking lot. It was a 270-degree turn. I don’t know how I did it. I failed driver’s ed when I stopped the car in the middle of the railroad tracks to check for trains. I was a wreck. My anxiety levels went through the roof.

I took driver’s ed again and had my dad teach me to drive. Things got marginally better; I got my driver’s license soon after passing driver’s ed class, but never drove on the license. I didn’t feel that confident about driving and my parents wouldn’t let me borrow the car. (They gave my sister her first car, which she wrecked).  I was too broke as a student to get my own car. 

I let my license lapse and didn’t try to get it back. Until I moved to upstate New York and discovered that I could have a social life if I had a car and a driver’s license. I found a teacher who could teach adults with driving challenges, and he taught me how to drive. He was the coolest, calmest guy so I didn’t get as nervous driving with him. 

I had a peculiarity that needed to be addressed: I didn’t know what action to do first. Imagine going down the street where there’s an intersection at the end. Do I signal first, or slow down? When do I start turning the wheel? Do I look right or left first? My driver’s ed teacher let me talk through my steps, and when I could drive without talking it out, it was time for me to get my license.

I succeeded in getting my license, and I felt competent enough to start driving. I got into a couple of accidents because I chose to go on road trips rather than getting lots of practice first. But I was driving, and I still consider it my greatest accomplishment.