Tasha Dhanraj is let loose on the open road

I have passed my driving test! I am so ecstatic. As people have been saying to me for the last month since failing my second driving test – it really was third time lucky. After three failures, British idioms start to run a little thin, so I was glad I didn’t have to listen to anything feebly optimistic such as “fourth time’s a charm” or “test number 8, you’re sure to be great.” I don’t know how many times I would have had to have failed to have given up entirely, but I imagine that after eight I would have started shopping for a segway.

But yes, I passed. None of that dread matters anymore. I never have to race home from college to have a driving lesson. I never have to trudge through the rain to get a train only to find it has been cancelled. I never have to leave a party embarrassingly early because the last train is at 23.37 and I don’t want to sit in the cold at Brighton Station until 6am to go home, despite how cool and hardcore it might be to do so.

My season ticket to get me to college every day expired two days before my test. Now I have a licence to drive I never have to take another train to Brighton for as
long as I live. I’m all for being eco-friendly, but if the government wants to encourage us to use public transport then they should do something to make it less monstrously rubbish. There are about two trains an hour from my tiny home station. They are delayed at least twice a week, overcrowded, and cost £5 just to get to somewhere faintly more interesting than Burgess Hill.

“I’ll never have to leave a party embarrassingly early again”

I’m driving a Ford KA, which not only costs the same in petrol as a train to college, but also means I can get there directly and never have to climb the massive hill ever again. That massive hill is also the only thing protecting my heart from a stodgy bucket of cholesterol. However, my love for my health is utterly diminished when faced with my hatred for that blasted hill, so I really don’t care.

I’ve already been for a few solo drives and I love it. I love the freedom it gives me and I love the moral high ground I can take by sticking to the speed limit despite people behind me getting angry. It’s totally worth every penny my parents spent on my tests.