The Road to Confidence By: Aditi Anumolu

 

The Road to Confidence

By: Aditi Anumolu

When I first got behind the wheel of a car, I was terrified. I was literally shaking and was so nervous that I didn’t even hear my instructor say hi. I would like to think that as I gained more practice and experience, I became more confident, but that didn’t happen until after I got my license.

Before I got my license, I felt like driving was a chore that I had to complete. My parents are firm believers that driving is an essential skill, so they would always drag me out on the weekends and practice around parking lots. However, I personally thought that driving was stressful, and there were way better things to be doing with my time.

It’s not that I hated driving, but it was the fact that every time I got on the road, I could see a million situations of what could go wrong. Thinking about those situations made me feel like it was safer in the passenger seat than in the driver's seat.

This mindset started to shift once I got my license, though, and I truly learned how to drive and do everything correctly. I felt so accomplished for mastering a skill that once gave me so much anxiety. I wanted to drive everywhere afterward, and my parents were laughing and joking with me about how far I had come from the scared driver when I first started. It truly shows that when you put your mind to something and try, it can give you a great amount of joy.