Now I Can Go on The Amazing Race!

I can gladly say that today was a successful today.  At 1pm today I arrived at A Formula 1 Driving School in Vaughan, Ontario for my first manual transmission driving lesson.

I must start out by saying that I am not the most coordinated person.  There's a reason my mum didn't sign me up for dance or gymnastics.  Hence my hesitation to trust my two left feet to make a car move.

This is not to say that I can't drive.  I've been driving for roughly seven years now and I'd like to think I'm a fairly good driver.  But driving and changing the gears at the same time is a completely different story.  I was having a panic attack just looking at the stick shift.  There was no way I was going to be able to do this.

And then came Jeff, the owner and instructor of AF1.  His calm demeanour and straight-forward explanations put me at ease.  He sat me in the passenger seat and went through everything about the car and drove around a bit so I could see it all in action.  After he taught me a little trick or quip to remember something, he'd quiz me, which began to build my confidence as I got question after question right.  I started to feel good, and believe that I could do it.

And then he said, "Okay, I think you're ready.  Your turn."

All that confidence went down the drain, and every quip he had just said had suddenly escaped my mind.  All I thought to myself was I can't do this!


But Jeff talked me through it and as I slowly moved through the gears, my confidence returned.  He managed to remain calm, even after the eighth time I didn't push the clutch far enough down.  He remained positive and praised me when my shifts were good, and my starts were smooth.  After only an hour, I was on highway 400, something I didn't expect to do so soon.  And just after that, learning how to start on a hill.

I'm proud to say that I didn't stall once.  But I can't say that was because I knew what I was doing, but because I had an excellent teacher.

I have my second (and last) two hour lesson tomorrow.  I'm really excited to go, and even more excited to drive in Geneva.  And as I told Jeff, "Now I can go on the Amazing Race!"...well, once I become an American, that is.

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, and you're looking for lessons, I highly recommend Jeff.  He's a great instructor, and is far less expensive than CAA.