“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!” – Matt
Better the second time around
It isn’t just meatloaf and pizza that are better the second time around, but driver’s licenses too. I remember quite vividly getting my Indiana driver’s license, eventually, after a failed driving test.
The first driving test examiner I had was a friendly, though intimidating, large man with a bushy white mustache. I was taking the driving test and all seemed to be going well, even the countless railroad crossings, until the last fateful traffic light. As I approached the intersection and reached what I thought was the point of no return (no stopping), the light turned yellow. In a split second, I had to decide to come to a screeching stop or continue forward. I decided to continue through the intersection. Within a block or so, I completed the test. The examiner looked over at me and said, “Sonny, Dad and Mom would drive through a yellow light like that, but you shouldn’t have. You’ll need to retake your driving examination.” Up to that point in my 16 years of life, that was the worst news I had ever received. I passed on my next driving test.
Ten years later I was living overseas and had to get a drivers’ license for that country. I knew going into it that getting a driver’s license there was the most difficult accomplishment for foreigners getting established. Because it was a costly full-time three-month process, often times, only one person in a household would get a license. My experience in getting an Indiana driver’s license didn’t fill me with confidence.
The overseas driving test had a book with 400 pages of driving minutia and details in the foreign language. It was common for nationals to retake the written test multiple times in their own language. With great thankfulness, I passed my written test on the first time. Next came the real challenge, the driving test. It required weeks of practice with an instructor who knew all the tricks of the course for the examination. Yes, we were paying to learn the spots examiners tripped up the drivers with, such as, not parallel parking in front of a palm tree where the examiner would have trouble opening his door. The testing car was a manual transmission and I had to not only shift smoothly, but know what gear for each setting, type of intersection, etc. It didn’t help that the course was in a mountainous area, so parallel parking with a manual transmission on a steep grade was no easy task. Despite the odds, I was able to pass my driving exam on the first attempt as well.
I have thought many times, how much easier it was to get an American driver’s license, but I guess driver’s license examinations go better the second time around.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
