The last hurrah

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Either this Thursday or Friday I will take a drive final to earn a Commercial Driver’s License for my job training. It is the culmination of seven weeks of training and testing. Surprisingly, the closer it gets, the less nervous I am about it.

Basically I have to drive a bus around San Jose for an hour and a half, demonstrating my ability to operate the vehicle safely and smoothly. Honestly at this point it isn’t about knowlege- I know pretty much where they will take me and what they are expecting, the only issue is nerves. Which is precisely the reason I opted out of taking the drive final today. I’ll have a chance to spend several days driving with instructors fine-tuning my skills but more specifically building confidence so that I’m not second guessing myself when its for real.

I’m a pretty high-strung person, which sounds like I wouldn’t be a very good match for a job that involves driving a bus full of people around. The way I see it, however, is that I just have to work harder at keeping my cool than other people.

Today a dozen trainees took their final and everyone passed so far. I am looking forward to my turn. :smiley:

2

Just have a few beers before the test, it’ll really mellow you out. They say it makes you a better driver, too!

Just kidding, of course, we’re sure you’ll do well!

3

So I guess you got better at turning?

4

I certainly did! So far most of the people who took the drive final passed easily. A classmate of mine who had similar issues as me in training (such as being stressed when an instructor is yelling at us while we are driving) and he had told me that the final was all hype in his opinion.

After driving the bus around Palo Alto last week, everywhere else has been a lot easier in comparison. As long as I keep my cool and don’t panic and forget something critical I’ll do fine.