Behind The Wheel, Finally!

I’m about to make a confession. Right here!

There are many personal things I haven’t opened up about on my personal blog, which is kind of strange as those who are active bloggers love to share about the lives they are living. What’s making them happy or sad, where they are traveling right now, what are they expecting and much more.

But I, on the other hand, hadn’t spilled out much about myself here. Not just on my blog here but also in real life too as even my real-life friends don’t know everything about me, which is bizzare for many. Since I’m an introvert, I don’t feel good about sharing everything with everyone. And yes, it sometimes also annoys those who are close to me.

There are many aspects of my life about which only close family members know and today, I’m about to share one of them with the world!

Before I let you know about it, you may want to ask me why. Why am I letting it out?

Well, honestly speaking, being an introvert has it’s own pros and cons. I know both of them very well because they responsible for what I’m today. I’m happy for what I’m but that’s just me who is saying this. Those who care about me and to whom I love as well, may not agree with my point of view always.

So, for those who I love, I’ve decided to bring up some changes in my life.

Starting up with learning to drive a car!

Yes, that’s right. I’ve decided to learn that one skill which is so much more than just a mandatory thing for humans in today’s world. I know many can’t drive or they hate to drive but driving a car or motorbike is something one can’t live without, especially in my country.

This car driving skill is something that has haunted me for so long. So very much long. Being the eldest among my siblings, I had to learn it and set an example for others. But that didn’t happened as my two little brothers learned the skill before I could. One of them can drive both car and motorbike while the other can drive motorbike only. Even after I graduated from college and started up my professional life, I didn’t showed much interest in learning this skill.

Buying a vehicle for commutting was out of question because of high prices, so I stuck to public transport mostly. My mother forced to enroll in a driving institute and I did took the classes also. But I scared up my mother when I took her out for a test run. Our old family car was Toyota Sprinter of the 70’s, on which my mother also learned to drive. I tried my hands on it but failed miserably.

For several years, even after getting married and becoming a father, I had to rely upon others to drive me around. Not just me, but also Jia (my wife) and Uzair (my son). And yes, you can easily label this as the biggest form of awkwardness, which I felt countless times but due to my introvert nature, I didn’t do anything about it. I knew that this is hurting Jia very much and many times, she said a word or two about it. But I just didn’t gathered up my guts.

But things started to change. My father planned to buy a new car and this time, he agreed upon buying the one with automatic transmission system. Earlier this year, we bought a new car, a Nissan Clipper which is a minicab. With automatic transmission system, I found it much easier to drive than the manual transmission version as changing gears frequently while driving is an art one should master in mid-20’s of his/her life.

Not in the late 30’s!

Jia, Uzair and I don’t have to rely upon auto-rickshaws anymore for driving around. In slow speed and cautious mode, I’m driving them and other family members around the neighborhood, which is pretty exciting for not only them but for me also. Mother was hesitating earlier while sitting in a car driven by me earlier but I took her out too twice in recent days. With heavy amounts of thanks to ALLAH, I didn’t scared it up as I drove with much caution. So, her approval is kind of like big deal for me.

I dreamed about driving a car on my own on empty roads and highways, just like in the movies. Though I’m looking forward to that moment but I’m not rushing for it.

Baby steps, you know. Baby steps!

---

P.S. Many thanks to Kally for injecting the encouragement in me through her recent post (Conquer My Hatred Of Driving – The Finale), which was powerful enough for this introvert fella to share a big secret of his life with the world 🙂

---

Added for RDP Friday: SKILL, Maggie’s Throwback Thursday – Learning to Drive