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I'm nervous enough sitting in a car with a new driver, so I imagined I'd have hypertension if I had to actually teach someone to drive. However, my parents recently decided it's now time for my sister to learn to drive a car. So, naturally, that meant that I was chosen for the job. We tried once, on an empty stretch of road and after numerous stalls and clutch dumps, we were finally on our way, in reverse!
It got me thinking about an accident my sister had when she was just starting off riding. I offered to teach my little sister to ride, although it was bad enough that I was learning to ride at the same time! I think it's safe to say it didn't go very well. Alright, she did know to operate the scooter (turn the ignition on, knew where the horn is etc.) but didn't have the confidence to ride out of the building premises and on to the road (she was armed with a learner's license, of course!). And the first time she did get on the road, an absent-minded trucker rammed his lorry against the scooter and dragged my sister and the scooter for a good few feet before coming to a halt. If it weren't for the front axle of the truck, the scooter would have surely gone under. I was also on the scooter at the time, but I jumped off as soon as I noticed a big lorry lumbering towards us. My sister, however, wasn't as lucky. No damage was done, apart from a torn pair of jeans, but the mental trauma meant that she never touched that scooter, or any other for that matter, again.
So when the time came for her to learn to drive, I decided to not volunteer (or be egged on to) and rang the professionals. This way, our beloved Indica would remain somewhat damage-free. And it's working, while being undeniably safer for both her, and other road users (not to mention our beloved car!). We curse under out breath every time we're stuck behind a slow driving-school car, but at the end of the day, don't realize what they're saving us from! So the next time your siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles flock (bribe, threaten...) you to teach them how to drive, you get to the nearest phone and call the professionals, okay?
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