On Learning New Things

Last summer, I learned how to drive a manual car. My brother was staying with me last summer, and he had a car he offered to bring to the city and share, but it was manual, and I didn't know how to drive it.

My mother had tried to teach me when I was 14 or so (just driving around the neighborhood). I think I made it a few hundred feet before I gave up. My stepfather tried again five or so years later. Again, didn't make it very far. This time around, my boyfriend was the one to teach me. I wanted to give up, to be honest, but I really wanted use of a car for the summer, so I stuck it out, and after a couple hours, had grasped the basics. My second lesson was with my brother, in the city, in the car I would be driving.

My brother's car is um ... interesting? It's a 1994 Accord. My boyfriend's was a 1995 (Turbo Charged? Super Charged? I don't know these things) BMW M3. Not the easiest things to learn on. After that second lesson, I was on my own. Thankfully, the car was well maintained and runs well, so I didn't have any problems with the car itself but learning was definitely an experience. I obviously drove on my own, without Audrey in the car, for a while till I felt I had the hang on it. My first time driving after those two lessons was from NYC to Pennsylvania. Yea. No quick little trips around the neighborhood or town.  I just went for it.

Since I was only driving on weekends, it took some time to get used to it. After the first weekend, I felt comfortable enough driving with Audrey in the car (I had been driving for ten years by that point, so it's not like I was a new driver all together). I still stalled sometimes though, so when I got to the point where I wasn't stalling when I went from sitting still to first gear, Audrey would clap and cheer me on from the back seat. Seriously, the first time I was able to start driving without a hitch Audrey's reaction was clapping and "Yay, great job Mommy!" Thanks, kid.

Last summer, Audrey got a new bike and a helmet. For the first couple weeks she wore the helmet all the time. I sent this picture to my family and everyone's response was that she was wearing it to protect herself from my driving in the manual car ... funny.

I didn't drive much in the fall and winter months because my brother had to bring the car back to our parents' house when school started again, but this summer, I'm totally comfortable driving stick. I think I still prefer automatic, but I'm really glad I learned how to drive manual. It definitely teaches you a little more about how a car works, and is a useful skill to have. I wish I had learned a decade ago.

Learning this new skill made me want to learn more new stuff. A weird fact about me: I never learned to ride a bike as a kid. Seriously. Like my early lessons at driving stick, I gave up too quickly because it didn't seem like a necessity. Most of my friends either lived close enough to walk or too far even for a bike ride. There wasn't much of an in between, and as I got older it just got more embarassing to do lessons outside, so I never looked back. Now I think I'd like to learn, especially as Audrey gets older and will soon be riding more than tricycles. Plus, it'd be great exercise.

There are other hobbies I'd like to take up as well. I'd love to learn to knit. I'd like to get better with computer related stuff - coding, website design, etc. I took 5 semesters of Italian in college and got pretty good at speaking it, but lost most of it in the years since, so I'd like to start studying that again. Maybe I should make one of the 101 in 1001 lists ...