Then a number of enormous, unquantifiable failures-a devastating breakup, the shutdown of the company I worked for, the terrifying feeling of not knowing what to do next after publishing my book-distracted me even more. First, I was too busy and happy to bother: I had amazing friends and a great job, had sold my first book, and was traveling the world reporting fascinating stories. Perhaps, I told myself, there was a good reason I could not get my license.įor a couple of years after, I simply stopped thinking about driving. Katya was a delicate, soft-spoken woman in her thirties who worked for the city by day and gave driving lessons in her time off because, she claimed, she enjoyed it so much. Valeriy had passed me off to a lady named Katya for a remedial session. The third time, I figured, would be the charm. I took 10 more classes I drove out to another testing site with Valeriy and by the time we arrived, my anxiety levels were so high that, blinded by nerves, I failed to yield. Dumb people did it! What was wrong with me? The next time wasn’t better. By any standard, driving wasn’t supposed to be hard. “It’s OK,” Valeriy said, as he drove me back. I was used to succeeding when I tried, and-to be perfectly honest-succeeding when I didn’t try that hard too. #Celebrities who failed their first driving test free#I was writing a book proposal and editing a magazine in my free time. School–from first grade through to my graduate studies-had always come easily to me. She was mean! I failed after driving too near a UPS truck and parallel-parking a good three feet from the curb. But the moment the examiner got in the car, my mind went blank: I was so used to learning in Russian that being told to turn and stop in English was confusing. We laughed on our way there, and I felt good about the test. I did make progress over the coming weeks, and after 10 or so sessions of an hour and a half each, he drove me deep into Brooklyn to take my test. That’s when I confused the word brake for the word gear. Within an hour, I was sitting behind the wheel on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, petrified, as Valeriy directed me onto the ramp and into the right lane. I thought I understood him well in retrospect, his gestures were more useful than my Russian vocab. #Celebrities who failed their first driving test how to#On my quiet street in Brooklyn Heights, he taught me the basics-how to turn on the car, how to go backward and forward, how to turn, how to parallel-park. Valeriy’s English, it turned out, was not so hot. When I told him I spoke Russian, he seemed relieved. He was a schlubby guy who fit every stereotype of a middle-aged immigrant from Eastern Europe. His car was littered with Little Debbie wrappers. Valeriy rolled in late for my first lesson in a small Honda, wearing an Adidas tracksuit and sneakers. A couple of days later, I received a note from in broken English confirming my first class and promising me I’d enjoy the lesson. I bought a package of classes and waited. I turned to Google and clicked on a link to a driving school in Brighton Beach. But I forgot about cars as soon as I mastered swiping my NYC MetroCard, and before I knew it, ten years had passed. I didn’t realize this wasn’t normal until I went to college and made friends with kids from California, Arizona, and New Jersey-kids whose adolescence seemed to revolve around driving. I suppose I could have at least taken lessons, but driving seemed like a risky chore it was also pretty pointless, since driving just wasn’t necessary for Geneva life. I grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, where the legal driving age was 18, and moved to New York as soon as I could. #Celebrities who failed their first driving test license#I didn’t think to get my driver’s license until my mid-twenties. Why are we so bad at talking about it, and why are we so afraid of it? The stories of Failure Week are here to help remind us that the world doesn't end when something goes horribly wrong, and that we can learn as much from life's disasters as its successes. It’s never fun, but we’ll all confront it at some point, be it through bad luck, bad behavior, or just sucking at something.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |