Sometimes it's little things
This is pretty pathetic for someone who has held a full license for 4 years and owned a car for 2 years, but...driving still scares me if I'm on my own or on an unfamiliar route. I get all wound up and stressed about it beforehand and am not a happy dragon. Before today, I had never driven on a motorway on my own, despite having done it with a passenger loads of times and largely without incident.
Today, I had to go to a meeting with a collaborator. The collaborator's site is accessible by public transport, but you have to go train-bus-train, and the second train only comes once an hour. So I'd have to leave home at about 8am to be sure to arrive between 10am and 10:30am in case the connecting bus ran into traffic. Alternatively, it's about a 30 minute drive (if the traffic is good). I almost wimped out and got the slow, overpriced, but less scary public transport option...but decided to be brave. So drove all the way there, even on the motorway, then a dual carriageway, then some entirely unfamiliar roads through some villages.
It took a bit over an hour, because it turns out one of the villages is a hellish bottleneck, but I did it. It gave me extra time in bed, and when the meeting was over, it meant I was back at work a good 45 minutes earlier. It also saved money despite being awful for the planet.
While "I drove 25 miles today" isn't really something most people would be proud of, I am proud of myself today, for doing something that scared me. Now it is less scary, because it went OK and I didn't cause any accidents.
Sometimes, it's little things. But little things add up to big things and one day perhaps I'll be brave enough to do something big, like drive up north to see my dad, or take myself on a weekend away somewhere that requires going round the M25.
Today, I had to go to a meeting with a collaborator. The collaborator's site is accessible by public transport, but you have to go train-bus-train, and the second train only comes once an hour. So I'd have to leave home at about 8am to be sure to arrive between 10am and 10:30am in case the connecting bus ran into traffic. Alternatively, it's about a 30 minute drive (if the traffic is good). I almost wimped out and got the slow, overpriced, but less scary public transport option...but decided to be brave. So drove all the way there, even on the motorway, then a dual carriageway, then some entirely unfamiliar roads through some villages.
It took a bit over an hour, because it turns out one of the villages is a hellish bottleneck, but I did it. It gave me extra time in bed, and when the meeting was over, it meant I was back at work a good 45 minutes earlier. It also saved money despite being awful for the planet.
While "I drove 25 miles today" isn't really something most people would be proud of, I am proud of myself today, for doing something that scared me. Now it is less scary, because it went OK and I didn't cause any accidents.
Sometimes, it's little things. But little things add up to big things and one day perhaps I'll be brave enough to do something big, like drive up north to see my dad, or take myself on a weekend away somewhere that requires going round the M25.