never posted in this thread due to a lack of a car, but i can finally post in here and talk about my sob story of why i waited until i was 22 to get my license. around 2011 when i was finally learning to drive at 15, i had loads of family stuff thrown at me. a few deaths and my grandfather having a near-death heart attack. my mom, whom was the one mainly responsible to teaching me to drive, was scared to. the first and only time i drove in a forest preserve parking lot wasn't that bad, but she freaked out and never took me out driving until spring of 2012.
the way my high school works was when you got to your 2nd year, or sophmore year in the states, was a few weeks your gym class turned into a drivers' education class. i was the first wave of kids to do the actual class, the boring driving laws stuff. at the end of the course, you'd take the illinois permit test and you'd get your permit. i passed that with flying colors, but they misspelt my last name pretty badly (bolbert. i'm a bolbat. come on, my handwriting isn't THAT bad
). after the permit test, you sign up for mandatory behind-the-wheel course. if you passed, you got your license right away. i signed up for in-school behind the wheel to get it out of the way.
after the first time driving with my mom when i was 15, literally every day i got home from school and i'd say, "yo, lets go driving" and she'd always say no. by spring time, my driving instructor which was my freshman year health teacher said the next monday we would start behind the wheel. my mom was under the impression i'd learn how to drive with him, which is not the case. it's more of the road test spanned out in 2 weeks of driving around during your lunch/study hall period. i failed miserably, at one point, i skidded the car badly because i almost didn't brake in time for a stop light. after my sophmore year was done, i told my mom i'm going to my grandparents for 2-3 weeks and learning how to drive there. they live in the middle of nowhere illinois out west of chicago, and yes, this is the same grandpa whom suffered that same heart attack 7-8 months prior.
learning to drive with him was way the forget better than my mom, he actually taught me how to properly drive. literally if my grandparents needed food or anything, i'd get the keys and drive. the worst thing i did was we pretended to parallel park with imaginary cars behind and front of me, but i was so close to the curb i scratched the stuff out of the car's rims. but man, driving a 2008 malibu around with my grandpa cracking up jokes was the highlight of that summer. his way of learning highways was genius, taking I-80 torwards iowa. noones on the road there, as soon as he said ok your're fine on the highway we took the next exit and drove back home.
after the driving bootcamp with my grandpa, it was total silence on whether i'd get my license. years of drama between my parents and me delayed loads of certain life events that should of happened if they weren't so roostery about me driving their cars. i live in a pretty small town southwest of chicago, so there's not much i could work at in walking distance. i explained to them, i want my license before i start a job, i get a "no you need to save money for that" response. i applied to a few jobs out in the commercial town of hodgkins/countryside and got no response and continued doing blockland stuff. when i graduated high school, i said what is going on with me driving. their response was, "not our cars." i ended up applying to jobs like mad that summer of 2014, and i ended up at target. i was driven back and forth between the job by my mom, which made me feel limited and shielded torwards the outside world. around the same time (2013-14) i was hard set with beating a tumor in my face. my mom further delayed the whole license thing while i was doing treatment to remove my face tumor. i had a operation done to remove the tumor end of july 2014, which target fired me for. i even gave them signed surgeon's notes because i knew they'd pull some BS. two weeks after being fired, i got the job that would change me forever (tj maxx) that i just quit a month or so ago. it barely paid like i did when i was working 35-40 hours at target, but it was a hell of a lot better. during 2014-2018, i was literally driven to work by my mom or stepdad, and i would never show initiative to buy a car because well, it's total bullstuff they wouldn't let me drive one of their cars to work and back.
december of 2017, my mom finally bought a new car. i got her old 2001 chevy cavalier, which i was with her when she bought it. i thought, "finally it's my time to drive." i would drive that car with her in the car to work and she'd drive it back. when i got out of work, she'd drive it to me and i'd drive it back. it was okay when we started this, but i got sick of it when she starts yelling at me about my driving (WHICH IS NOT BAD). like "tom you're going to hit that car" and i'd get pissed and hit the gas to prove i wouldn't hit him, which i didn't. i quit my job in march due to stuffty hours, went to chipotle, quit that, and now i'm a gas station clerk with killer hours. after literal family fights about me getting my license, on 4/20 i called my friend up in the morning to sit in the car while i drove the car to the DMV. this was my parent's claims about the driving test, "i need to sign off that you're using my car"
FALSE "i need to be in the car while you take the test"
FALSE "i need to put you on my insurance before you take the test"
MEGA FALSE. passed all the tests (vision, written, road) with flying colors. i got my license on loving 4/20. when my mom texted me later that day to say "you ready for the test?" i texted her a picture of my drivers license and she was PISSED i did this, but i only did all of that to prove them wrong on how they think the DMV operates. plus, the local DMV is always loving packed and going last minute would be the dumbest thing to do.
after 7 years of total bullstuff, i'm on the road. forget yeah, man.
EDIT: too lazy to add this to the chipotle part of the story, but i blew my federal tax refund for loving ubering to chipotle for interviews and work. my parents didn't believe me and further delayed fronting insurance money that was already paid for. plus with no solid income from changing jobs twice, it pissed me off that they think it's so easy to loving live on borderline minimum wage. i'd love to see them live with 10 bucks an hour, it sucks richard.