Driving Test Struggles

I've taken tons of tests in my life. I'm not the only one; everyone born in the highly competitive country of Korea has had to take a lot of tests to survive, to make a living, and to be better than others. Entrance exams, various exams and final exams while in school, electrician's license exams, job entrance exams... I'm proud of myself for passing so many exams.

 

I'm often told that I am “straightforward and inflexible,” or in other words, “stuffy. stubborn. Doesn't adapt quickly to change.” It's used in a more negative sense, meaning, ”Stuffy. This person is usually strict with themselves and has a strong sense of compliance, but they can also be tiring to work with."

 

For someone like me, who grew up in a not-so-wealthy family and couldn't even afford to go to school or get tutoring, there was only one way to prepare for a test, and that's to prepare more than others. I didn't even know how to study; all I knew was how to memorize dictionaries and cram miscellaneous knowledge into my head. Still, I passed many exams without retaking them, not because I was particularly bright, but because I prepared with diligence.

 

The driver's license test I took as soon as I arrived in the U.S., more than 30 years ago, was very different from the pencil-and-paper tests. I was so nervous because of my sensitive nature that I failed twice and passed on the third attempt. I did a lot of preparation. I practiced driving on both local streets and highways under the guidance of a driving school teacher, and I mastered parallel parking without much difficulty.

 

During my first driving test, I was driving on the road when the examiner sitting next to me suddenly and bluntly ordered me to go back to the starting point. I did as I was told, and he scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper and told me that I failed and needed to go to the office to schedule a retest. “It was raining and you didn't use your wipers,” was the reason given. When I protested to my driving instructor about why he hadn't taught me to use the wipers, he said, “Isn't it common sense to use the wipers when it's raining?” He laughed at me. I had always practiced driving in good weather, so I was unprepared for the rain.

 

I failed the second test a few weeks later. Why did I fail if I practiced enough before the test? This time, I failed because I “did not look left and right enough at the stop sign.” I grumbled to my driving instructor about why I needed to look left and right when there were no cars in the empty testing center, but he didn't hear me. However, I could see on his face that he was thinking, “Ugh, you idiot.”

 

I almost failed the test a few weeks later because of one mistake. I was reversing into a parallel parking spot and hit a cone-shaped marker. I knew I'd be embarrassed if I failed again, so I pleaded with the very fat female examiner sitting next to me as politely as I could. “Madam, I've made a mistake,” I said. “That's okay, everyone makes mistakes.” (She was generous, as it turns out.) “Will you please give me another chance?” “As you wish.”, “Thank you so much.”

 

Encouraged by her smile, I completed the parallel parking calmly and neatly this time, and at the stop sign, I looked left and right with as much exaggerated gesture as I could muster. It wasn't raining, so I didn't have to demonstrate that I knew how to use the wipers. When I finished and returned to the starting line, the examiner handed me a slip of paper that said “Passed.” She congratulated me and told me to go to the office to pick up my license. I was so happy that I was able to pass the test.

 

However, the stories that came out of the students of the driving instructor afterward were not so beautiful. “There's a guy named Kim at Company Gold Star in Lynnhurst, and I've never seen anyone drive so badly in my life.” By telling people this way, even my direct supervisor who came to the U.S. a little later than me, I became famous in my small Korean-American community. But as much as I hated to hear it, I had no choice but to wait for him to change jobs. Soon, he opened a fish market and the rumors about me being a terrible driver died down. Soon after, I heard that he closed the shop due to lack of business, but I didn't feel sorry for him.

 

But my wife passed her driver's license test for the first time. Our oldest daughter took a few lessons at school when she was in high school and passed her license in one try. Our younger daughter also passed in one sitting. She didn't even seem to have practiced. I think the girls in my home are amazing, but the US driver's test is relatively easy, so it's not really a story because they all pass in one go. I've been talked about, not very honorably, because very few people take the test three times as I did.

 

After 20 years of trying to be a good and law-abiding driver, I was able to finish my driving career with only one minor offense. I was in a major accident, not while driving, but when I was getting something out of the trunk of my parked car and some nutcase hit me from behind.

 

(June 8, 2015)