On 4 January 2024 I passed my driving test. In this blog post you can read about the hurdles and stumbling blocks I ran into on my road to a driving licence.
Do you still have the tune in your ear, the words still in your head: «This road will not be an easy one, this road will be stony and hard»? That’s right, Xavier Naidoo, 2009, live at the Waldbühne in Berlin – magnificent! Five years later I played a stage of my own: the piece was called «Driving licence», the theme was the same, the leading role had sadly already been cast, but at least they took me on as an extra!
Seriously: as a lover of anything motorised on wheels, and hopelessly addicted to the drug that is car magazines (no, nothing online, back then we still held them in our hands!), it had always been clear to me that I wanted to start learner driving on precisely my 18th birthday, so that I would have «the licence» in my hands as fast as possible. For all the clarity about the goal, the road really was «stony and hard», rather full of branches and not always clearly signposted.
01
How it all began
In that year my focused, goal-oriented sister asked me whether I wanted to do the Nothelferkurs (first-aid course) with her, even though I was a mere innocent 14 years old. Since I had no time-consuming hobbies anyway, and was toying with the idea of taking the scooter test at exactly 16, I agreed. The piece was a clever and cheerful staging of tragedy and comedy, modern spoken theatre in other words (more information on the Nothelferkurs). When I finally came of age in spring 2021, I got on with the theory test promptly and passed it in the summer.
02
Finding a driving instructor
As I mentioned at the start, it mattered a lot to me to get the driving test behind me on economic principles: few driving lessons, little time, little money, little grief from my friends (but do not lose sleep over social pressure!). So it quickly became clear to me that finding the right Fahrlehrer:in (driving instructor) was fundamental and, quite literally, the thing that would set the course – if I did not want to ruin myself in time, money and nerves. In 2021 the search was still a never-ending story, fairytale-like and fantastical at any rate; today you can play Frodo Baggins and find your Samwise Gamgee in no time at all on the driving instructor comparison! After a long search I eventually found a genuinely likeable instructor, and got through my first driving lesson with him in September 2021.
I actually enjoyed learner driving – on the whole. Of course it could never go fast enough for me; I had to learn to be patient and to trust that my instructor would recognise the right moment. After 16 endless driving lessons and a VKU (Verkehrskundeunterricht, road-awareness course) I half slept through, I could finally show in March 2022 what an incredibly talented motorist there was inside me.
03
The day of the driving test
Whatever I may have told everyone around me: I was enormously nervous that morning, truly enormously nervous. At least my driving test was at 9 o’clock, so there was simply no opportunity to work myself into an even greater state. On the other hand I was a bit half asleep.
Before the test I had, as is usual, one last driving lesson, which turned out afterwards to be extremely useful. Because during the test I had to parallel park at exactly the same spot and in exactly the same car park where, half an hour earlier, I had practised with my instructor and only managed it on the second attempt. Now, at the test, it worked first time, probably also because I had draped one arm pointedly casually over the back of the passenger seat (a joke: always keep both hands on the wheel!).
What was unusual about my driving test, and what threw me at first, was that my examiner was himself being assessed by another examiner. So instead of the usual two of us in the car there were three – something to get used to!
The test began, after a polite and civilised greeting, with a few questions on the technical side of the car. So, how do I open the bonnet and where can I check the oil level. I answered every question confidently except one. Where do you switch on the child lock? Would you have known? After a brief sweat and in the deep conviction that I had already blown the test, we set off on the practical part.
Once I had restored my inner balance, the test went by without further incident. I was visibly able to relax and find my concentration again. I had to cover a short stretch of motorway, secure the car correctly on a hill, do a three-point turn and, as mentioned, parallel park. Thanks to the relaxed chat with the examiner I had completely forgotten that the second examiner was still sitting in the car, and so the fifty minutes or so went by surprisingly quickly and calmly.
When I was finally told the positive result in the car park of the vehicle inspection centre, I was of course overjoyed and felt a great weight fall from my shoulders. The big goal had been reached at last!
04
What I learned on the road to my licence
In closing I can say that I would certainly not have got to the practical driving test as relaxed and confident as I did without such an experienced and empathetic instructor, who prepared me for the test in a truly professional way.
Of course the road to a driving licence is individual and personal for everyone. But choosing your instructor carefully is eminently important; the «chemistry» has to be right, because in the end the two of you are roped together and heading into rocky, hard terrain.