} driving lessons

back from jakarta! it was good to be back. although it was only for a short time it still felt great. for some reason time seems to run slower while i was there.. lol. the days seemed longer and i felt like i did a lot of stuff in just 11 days. cool. =)

one thing i did there was learn to drive. haha. ironically it made me more convinced that i would be a road hazard. =| but its quite cool that i can drive now. sort of. haha. and a lot of stuff that you learn in driving can be applied in life, hahaha. for example..

1. when driving, you need to keep in mind the other cars on the road! likewise in life you got to pay attention to people around you. sometimes you got to give way to them. sometimes you need to accept when they're giving way to you.. or you'd cause a jam. haha.

2. communication is important! got to give signals when you're turning. likewise, we cant expect people to read our minds. if we dont tell them how are they gonna know how we feel or predict what we're gonna do?

3. when driving on the road in jakarta especially, traffic jams are very common... and sometimes they are so bad that you could be stuck in the same spot for 15 mins... life also 'stops' that way sometimes, like you feel like you're stuck in a rut. but we got to be patient and there will be a way out eventually. =)

4. balance is important! when driving you cant keep stepping on the gas, and you cant let go of the clutch too suddenly, or the engine will die off. (like what happened to the car i was driving..many times...) the trick is to let go of the clutch slowly while stepping on the gas at the same time, something i still havent really got the hang of... anyway likewise we cant have too much of one thing eh. balance balance.

5. know when to change gear! if you keep going in first gear you wouldnt get anywhere... but if you keep going in third gear in a small street you would be ..quite dangerous... haha. sometimes we can go fast, sometimes we need to slow down our pace.

6. theres always a second/third/etc chance... even when the engine dies off, you can still start up the car and keep driving again. =) on my first driving session i had to re-start the car 823498237423874 times. haha. of course it was very demoralising but cant really expect to master something on the first try. thats also another lesson btw, haha.

7. and the most important lesson in driving, always keep your eyes on the road! sometimes you got to look at your surroundings, but you still have to look back on the road in front of you. sometimes we look back on the past, or too far ahead into the future. but the most important is the present! cos no matter what, thats what we have to face now.

anyway aside from the fact that i really suck at it, i love driving! especially when you have a straight road with few cars around hahaha. speeding is fun. and it feels good when i can do a successful turn or park without banging into anything, haha. cant wait till i get my own car. =P

2006-12-20, 9:52 p.m..
before } after