Driving Instructor

Over the last few months, I have taken on an entirely new role: driving instructor. My nephew, Chris, turned 18 on January 23 and he decided that it was finally time for him to get his driver’s license. As an added incentive, I had told him that once he passed his test, I would give him my Honda Civic as a gift.

Unfortunately for Chris, he wanted to learn how to drive during tax season (my brother is a CPA) and neither Matt nor Julie had the time to dedicate multiple hours to teaching him how to drive. So I offered to help out.

Now I’ll be honest, after I offered to take on this role, I started to doubt whether or not it was a wise decision, but I figured that we would see how it all went. Chris is a good kid and I knew that he was going to do his best.

On our first day, I took him to where I grew up and learned to drive – Burlingame. I felt most comfortable there because I knew the roads and could slowly ramp up the difficulty factor. In a couple of hours, we got him from residential streets to El Camino and then finally up to Highway 280 for a mile or two. (I didn’t go on the freeway for the first time until after I had passed my driving test.)

After that, Chris and I went driving probably 7 or 8 more times until his driving test on June 3 in Daly City. Believe it or not, there was a HUGE backlog of driving tests at the DMV and the earliest one we could find was 30 days away – in Daly City instead of Corte Madera where he lives.

In all of our driving, I think that there were only 3 times when I thought that we might not make it. Each of those was a good learning process (he learned how to handle the situation and I learned how to let go of being in control). In the end, I felt perfectly comfortable as a passenger as Chris drove us from Corte Madera over the Golden Gate Bridge, through SF and down to Daly City for his test.

Chris passed his driving test on the first try. He got four marks against him (the max allowable is 15), but he passed with flying colors. I think I was more nervous than he was – that may have had something to do with the car I bumped into when parallel parking at the DMV right when we got there. I hope he didn't mind since the car is now his!

The best part, though, was that I got to spend a good deal of time with Chris – driving and talking. He’ll be joining the Air Force this August and I’m sad that I won’t be able to spend as much time with him once he heads out. I really respect his desire to make the world a better place. Like any 18 year-old, I think he is a bit overly idealistic, but I'm happy that he has been getting experience through his interning with the Corte Madera Police Department and joining the Air Force.