Driving license

 Getting my driving license has been, without a doubt, one of the most rewarding and entertaining experiences of the last months. I wasn’t aware of how much effort you have to put in order to finally be able to drive. Nonetheless, everything I have had to go through has been worthwhile.

My journey began in September, the second week of it. I went to ask for information to Ayala, a driving school near my home, and the very same evening I signed all the papers needed to begin the theory sessions. Even though I wanted to attend the lessons in the morning, they were no more places available, as there are restrictions regarding the seats they can offer so that they comply with the covid procedures. So, I went the first week from Tuesday to Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., approximately and, the following week, I attended the classes from Monday to Thursday in the same schedule. The first day was nerve-wracking: I didn’t know anyone, I was about to learn a lot of new information, I had to do the tests to prove myself I understood the topics we were being taught… There were many issues I had to be nervous about. However, my nerves vanished throughout the day. I still got nervous, but people were fairly nice (as nice as they can get when they do not know who you are), and, just as I got comfortable with my classmates, it was already time to practice on my own at home until I felt prepared. I was for about a week doing tests non-stop and I went to the exam.

Doing the exam is not as easy as saying: “I want to do the theory exam”. You have to have a test done that proves you can drive without being a threat to people’s lives. After doing the test, issue I didn’t have to be nervous about yet I was, I was finally ready to do it. Due to Covid, things have changed: you have to be at least twenty minutes before the exam time, gloves, pen, and ID are compulsory to be brought, and you have to disinfect your hands before and after doing the test on computers. The questions were neither difficult nor easy. The thing with these kinds of exams is that you do not know if you have passed or not. Luckily, according to the examiner, the results were available at around 5 p.m. on that same day. Not coming as a surprise, the results were not able to be seen at 5, but at 9. Nonetheless, I wasn’t complaining as I passed the exam with just 1 mistake out of thirty questions. 

Now, the second part came. As there is a delay in the practice sessions, I had to wait two weeks until finally getting in a car. In the first session, I got the handle of it. Nevertheless, as soon as I stepped out of my neighborhood, things were not as easy as I wanted them to be: narrowed curves, badly parked cars everywhere, pedestrians crossing wherever they wanted to. Not having these things into consideration, I truly enjoyed my classes. However, all good things must come to an end, and, after twenty five practice sessions, I was ready to do my exam.

With this second exam I had more added pressure: if you failed, I would have had to wait for two months or so until the driving school had been able to squeeze a spot in the exam. In addition to this, none of my family has passed this exam for the first they, so I wasn’t as sure of myself as I could have been. According to my trainer, my exam was around 11 a.m. In the end, I did it at 13:30, as my examiner was testing a truck that had had a forty minute exam, and I had four girls that had asked me to do the exam before me. Throughout the morning, I had just seen a girl, that was doing the exam for the second time, passing the exam out of five we were. The girl before me came back to the meeting spot after ten minutes: she had missed a traffic light. Then, it was my turn. I went through the highway and all the way towards Saavedra Fajardo high school, passing Cartagena street at rush hours. I tried to stay as focused and relaxed as I could. What made me more nervous was that I was supposed to end the test at DGT but I didn’t. Instead, I finished the test near the driving school. I got out of the car, my trainer told me he thought I had passed and, the next day, his suspicions were confirmed.

As I look back, I miss doing something different, out of the routine; talking with my trainer, driving around, learning new things… Only one week has passed and I am already looking forward to getting my license and driving my family to different places. 

References:

1. https://www.laverdad.es/nuestra-economia/autoescuela-ayala-cost-20170601012659-ntvo.html

2. https://autoescuelaayala.com/permiso-b/teorico-coche/