Sunday, September 23, 2012

Telling a story: Driving lessons



“Learn to drive in a week”… ha! I blame them! Thinking about driving to have your own car and go around as you wish is one of the most recurrent goals in people’s life… and marketing takes advantage of it.

Naïve and young – as I was several years ago – taking a driving course seem the best choice for start driving – and even better if it is an intensive one – but at the end one discovers that the word ‘intensive’ is applied no to the time it takes but for how you feel.

It always starts with the fear of being in front or the driving wheel for the first time – feeling that we overcome by the thought of having our own car. But then, after getting along with the car pedals by pressing them over and over, the fear comes back once again… the fear to crash – and this feeling gets even worse if we think about the security checks: a rod (metallic stick) in the instructor’s hand for pressing the stop pedal in case of emergency!

Well, beating this first impression, and always thinking in the close future, we start driving (or, at least, we think so). Press here, move there, change that, pass over there, stop, accelerate, change road, signal light... not that, the other light!

Day after day, finally we get to the last one. The fifth day (generally on Friday, so we cannot go back to complain after two non-labor days) we have the last round with the instructor and then he says we can now drive by ourselves... what a liar!

It happened to me, as it might happen to anyone else. After having a high self-confidence on my driving skills, the first step, take out the car... fail – why do I think so? Well, placing the taillight in the pipeline can be a good signal to that conclusion.

"But... well... accidents happen... it's a new car, I need to inure to the controls... let's continue driving!" Bad idea! If, after two blocks, you realize that you are driving over the pedestrian side... it is time to stop and think you really do not know how to drive!

So, the advertising should say something like: "You will learn to drive in one week... but we do not guarantee it is going to be in your first week!" I am not pleased to say that I still don't know how to drive.

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