In Brazil, you only can get your driver’s license when you’re 18 years old. Everybody dreams about it. Driving, at this stage of life, means independence. But no matter how much we are excited for it, the process is terrifying. For all those girls who are afraid of taking a risk, for all the girls that have doubts about the whole process or just want to know different experiences, this text try to solve all your questions. 24 girls were interviewed and that`s what we found out.
Starting with the psychometric exams, Mariana Meira, who is shortsighted, was oriented not to tell it to the doctor. That was what she did, but she didn`t expected the doctor to ask her to look inside of a machine which she needed to identify some letters. She missed everything, so she confessed. After 8 years of this episode, she doesn’t leave her house without glasses and warns “Be honest on the exam, that can avoid embarrassment and future accidents”. On the other hand, Giulia Bressani, who got her license for automatic cars once she has a knee problem, had a fright during her night lesson. She was so tired that fell asleep while driving. The girl that was so afraid of getting her license, today, informs “If there are so much people driving, it can’t be that hard. The examiner doesn’t want to reprove you!”. Cris Góes, who had her last lesson before the test marked to the wrong day, just request “Keep calm no matter what happens”.
Let’s jump to the most feared part, the practical exam. Everyone who starts this process imagine yourself while this moment. Some girls who weren’t approved on the first try, spoke about it to show that’s not the end of the world. Georgea Andrade did the exam twice, once she stalled the car at the driving test for the first time and didn’t know how to reverse this situation. She reports “The test isn’t impossible, you just need to stay calm”. Mariana Agati had a comic story on her first attempt: while she was waiting on the line, a girl told her about a friend who was disapproved, because he forgot to put the seat belt. Mariana laughed and joked “You need to be really stupid to do that”. Some minutes after it, she was disapproved for the same mistake, then she emphasizes “Don’t laugh about other’s mistakes, because it cans turn against you”.
There were a lot of funny stories such as Marcela Celestrino’s. On her second try, she forgot to signal a right return and said that out loud. The examiner just laughed and told her he hadn’t repaired. “I spent the whole test laughing… both of us”. By the end, she was approved. Nicole Suto had a different experience, but as stranger as this one. She also was on her second try, driving “when I look to my side, my examiner was sleeping… and with his mouth open! I just didn’t know what to do”. After some time, he woke up and was terrifying, because she was out of the route. She didn’t have to drive all the course, because he was worried about time and she was approved. She satirizes “I learnt that having a test early in the morning can indicate to have an examiner who had a tough night”. Isabela Olmos also spent to an usual experience. She was already nervous, because it was her first try and everything was going fine when she crushed something. Her examiner revealed “You killed a dove”. “I freaked out, I just brake the car and wanted to get down”. He stopped her. Besides that, everything went well and she was approved.
There were also tense stories. Amanda Penida, who already drove before starting the process, thought everything would be easy. On her first try, she stalled the car and “I got so nervous that I accidentally dropped the examiner coffee cup all over her… She got so mad that disapproved me at the same time”. Natália Delgado had some problem as well. She was doing so great that her examiner comfort her “relax, you’re going to be approved!”. She got so confident that forgot to step on the clutch pedal after her perfect parallel park and not only crashed the car, but kneaded it. “The examiner was really stupid and rude with me… I felt humiliated”. She added “I learnt that is important to trust on yourself”. For Júlia Faria the jitter was an enemy. After her fourth disapproval, “I got out the car crying and just ran away, because I was ashamed”. Her instructor had to call her mom to say he had lost her. Luckily she had already called her and told about the situation. She was approved on her fifth try and “Cried, hugged the examiner, hugged my instructor… I made a party”. Her tip was “You have to pretend is just hanging with your family”.
Laís Vieira had a total new experience on the exam. She invited her father to go to the driving school on the day and, when they got there, he decided to go to the exam local with her. He pretended he was a freelancer journalist and the examiners started to press him for taking pictures there. Her father was taking to another place and she got afraid, so she texted him and he just replied “Soon I’ll be back to the newsroom! I’m finishing the agenda. Everything is ok”. After everything she found out they took him to the press part and warn him he couldn’t take pictures. She got in the car and her examiner knew she was the “journalist’s daughter”. She was approved without mistakes, although she remembers to have missed things. After the approval, she found her daddy taking pictures of a lady, surrounded by a lot of people who were giving opinion about the poses. This girl asked her father where that pictures would be disclosed and he lied “On the news portal UOL”. It was a funny story to tell, but at that point, it was stressful to her.
If you think all your problems end after getting your card lesson, Mariana Martucci shows us that they are just starting. She got her driver’s permit and decided to take her friend out. Everything was going fine until she decided to go to her mom’s store “I wanted to show her I was driving”. She was so excited that when she got there she missed the clutch pedal and crashed the car. After 30 minutes with her permission to drive, she was in front of the delegacy sending pictures to other friends she would take to a ride. Rhaisa Trombini, who is still in the process to get car and motorcycle license, confirms “Driving is easy, you just have to memorize mechanic movements and repeat them”, Flávia Giraldes, who was abandoned by her instructors and timed her parallel park trying to do it as soon as possible, uttered “Driving is not something simple, you need to have responsibility with people around, specially, the most fragile” and she completed “It is necessary to respect other’s space”. Mariana Almeida, who did the exam for 5 times, just begged “Don’t blame yourself for messing on the first time. You’ll only learn how to drive, practicing”.
When they were asked for advices, there were a lot of answers, but all of them could be summarized with “Be calm”. Letícia Amado, who was helped for a truck driver after stuck in the semaphore, tranquilizes “Everyone has gone through this, including the person that is behind you with that angry face”. Débora Romanini, who got into a gantry during a class, suggests “Choose a good instructor, someone you identify yourself. If you don’t feel safe, changed it”. Marcella Pazeto, who got on the sidewalk during the test, alerts “Don’t panic about a mistake”, because that can’t disapprove you, what reproves you is jitters. Larissa Isabelle, who also got on the sidewalk reported that you need to control your breath “That will impact on your car’s control”. Bianca Teixeira, who did the test for 6 times, confessed “The exam is silly, it could be more realistic” and her tip was to stay calm to remember all the details you need to do. Beatriz Egéa had a different trick, after two tries, she said “Don’t tell anyone you’re going to do the exam, that will calm you without pressure” and implored “Don’t break the system, the feeling of be approval is indescribable”. To Isabela Grunwald “You only learn to drive daily”. Mariana Dantas, finalized “I learnt there is no impossible obstacle in our life”.