40 ~ North Shora News -

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Britta Bacchus
Contributing Writer

ON my 16th birthday I
asked my parents if I
could take driving
lessons.

Like most people my age.
Md always considered a driver's

Ban

UTO
13

Now the conce
SUV is no longer beyond be

 eenray,

Friday, December 15, 2000

licence as a mark of indepen-
dence and a gateway to tre
dom. [ never thought that dei-
ving would be any kind of chal-
lenge. [figured it would be like
bumper cars, only bigger.
Naturally, my parents were
seared to death at the idea of
me behind the wheel, bur they
knew that driving was a. skill

SE
Need

{t's almost too good to be true. We could hard-
ly wait to share the good news. The 2001
Grand Vitara ts now the lowest priced V6

4X4 SUV in Canada: Almost as excit-

ing, keyless entry, a CD player, ABS.

and power door locks and mirrors =<

- are standard fare.

“Based on 4.4% feast rate, OP $2.55, POE & freight S895,

Litense, insurance & taxes extra.

"2004 Grand Vitara V6
2289 "10 monsts one

oh
ebnyre cist ASN

Pay yO
en stonicaac eons
foe S Bye BOWS, ag. ricperon 0

pt of owning an
ief.

AOA eR OE SPILL ARG MERA AEM Tasca OP ee

that f would need in life. They
scheduled lessons with Young
Drivers of Canada. § picked up
a driver's: manual, and subse-
quently fet it gather dust in my
bedroom for the following
month.

Eventually the scheduled
lesson time crept into my con-
sciousness. but something
about the rales of the road put
me right to sleep. 1 coulda'e
focus ar all, my mind wandered
and the information thew right
over my head.

When the time came to take
the test} confured up a ralse
sense of confidence and hoped
that T could just Swing it.”

LE failed miserably, and
walked out of the Motor
Vehicle Branch with my tail
between my legs. A week later I

purchase financing
up fo 36 months

ect

He teeaand Geek ES

‘Sa

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ere

" Come IN AND
Baowse On Sunn
* Atay wana eae Gath

eh es ‘

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

GRADE 12 student Britta Bacchus worked a week at the News this year as part of
her career planning. She always came by bus. oS

took the test again, and failed.
The third time was the charm.
Though TF was relieved, a loom-
ing voice inside of me haunt-
ingly whispered “this is only
the beginning.”

It was.

Class lessons came before
in-car lessons... Approximately
eight teenagers and [sat
through a series of outdated
videos about the dangers of
drinking and driving. We
learned driving tips like “look-
ing well ahead,” “Plan your
route,” and “Don’t forget to
cheek your blind spot!”

All of these were meaning-
less at the time.

I remember the tirst driving
lesson with unforgiving accura-

ase
aan
sf 1S :

cy. T waited by the tront door in
painful anticipation of my dri-
ving instructor's arrival.

Knock, knock, knock. My
trembling hand opened the
door to a short, slightly over-
weight, middle-aged smoker in
dark sunglasses.

“You ready?,” he asked, his
yellow teeth exposed behind an
evil, satanic grin.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerat-
ing a little. One thing I did like
about him was his’ sense of
humour. It kept me from
hyperventilating while clutch-
ing the wheel as if it were a life
preserver,

There was no clichéd fairy-
tale ending. That first lesson
was a disaster.

Driving a car became my
own version of hell. 1 couldn’t
sleep at night, and when I did I
had nightmares about car

crashes. Every day I worried .

about my next lesson. It got to
the point where I was fantasiz-
ing about injuring myself, or

being diagnosed with a severe -

illness — anything to get me
out of driving lessons...

Miraculously the lessons got
easier. I was making progress,
though it was painfully slow.
Just as J was starting to become
comfortable, my instructor told
me that he’d scheduled a Road
Test. T was nauseated at the
thought of it. Two days before
the test, I chickened out and
postponed it until a later date.

The following months [
stopped driving completely. i
felt like a failure, and time
moved slowly through a series
of — self-defeating
Everything reminded me of
driving. All I had to do was go
outside, and there were cars.

_ While my other friends

started getting their licences -

and offering classmates rides, I
had to ask my mom to drive me
to babysitting gigs. °

Sometime in April, almost a
year after I started learning, my
cousin phoned me to Jet me
know she’d gotten her licence.
I broke down and told her
about my shameful driving
defeat. She told me ‘that she

_had failed her first Road Test,
and'had gone through a similar -

experience, ;

After talking with her I felta
sense of motivation T had been
lacking for a long time, so T
scheduled a Road Test for May.

Much to my surprise, dri-
ving wasn’t as hard as I'd
remembered. All of a sudden, it

events. -

seemed a lor easier. Of course,
Mom still wouldn’t get in a car
with me, but that was under-
standable,

The fateful test day cazie, |
and the anxiety I'd felt the day
of the first lesson came back to
hit me like a punch in the face.

I honestly don’t believe I’ve -
ever been more nervous. “It’s
just driving, it’s not like you’re
waiting for the results ofa brain
scan,” I told myself. ‘

But no matter what I, or
anybody else said, it didn’t
change the fact that passing the
test was important to me, It
was a reflection of who I was, if
I failed, then I might not be
able to face the challenges of
life. If I passed, I was a survivor,

I took the test and failed.

I was inconsolable. I went
home and wallowed in a pit of.
woe-is-me, self-centred, adoles-
cent melodrama. I listened to
the angst-ridden lyrics of Kurt
Cobain and other disenchanted
rock icons, while lying on my
bed in a state of emotional
combustion,

To this day, I don’t know
what gave me the strength to
reschedule another test. f think
driving to the Motor Vehicle
Branch was probably the worst
part. It was like being on death
row, oo -

I was a robot, taking the
test. Not until the test was over
did my mind resume normal
thought functions. Actually,
they were more like prayers I-
sat in the driver’s seat) and ..’
apprehensively awaited - my_<
results. My palms were sweat-’
ing so profusely my pants were «:
getting damp. : _

“Well, Britta, you passed,”
the examiner transformed into
an angel. I was in Heaven. I can
barely describe the overwhelm-
ing sense of relief and empow- _
erment that channeled through
my body at that moment. I felt’
like Superwoman. The feelings
were so intense I never did fully’ ’

absorb them, .» ;

After receiving my licence 1°
realized that agonizing year

was, in fact, a blessing in dis-

guise. Not only am [a better
driver because of it, 1 now feel
far more prepared to face the
challenges of life.

In the, four months since **
passing driving has become like
second nature. Pm finally start:
ing to enjoy it, - Te

Now if only my mum would
let me. take her car‘more than
six blocks-to the Subway...