Journal Entry 6

Chapters

Driving Lesson 3: Parking

I had my third driving lesson yesterday (Saturday). This might be my last driving lesson for a while even though I signed up for five lessons in total. I think three lessons is definitely enough to pass the road test and all I have to do is continue practicing outside of the lessons with a parent. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to practice with a parent due to some “circumstances”, which has really annoyed me.

The main focus of this lesson was learning how to parallel park. I always heard that parking was one of the more difficult parts of the road test, so I was expecting it to be hard. The hardest part for parallel parking is finding that “transition spot” (as my instructor called it), where you turn the steering wheel from right to left. The most consistent way that I was taught to park was to use a reference point relative to the right mirror. For example, I was told to look at where the curb on the mirror “intersects” the car handle and then continue using that as a reference point on when to switch directions. Other than that, parking is very straightforward from there. Or at least, it was for me. I was also told that this method might not be as useful in real life and other methods might be better, but the sole focus of the lessons were to help me pass the road test when I take it.

Currently, my left turns are better than my right turns. I’m apparently turning the wheel too early when making right turns, which confuses me because I’ve been using the exact reference point my instructor gave me. He told me to start turning the wheel when the front of the curb is lined up with the front of the car. I also “suck” at the turns where I don’t start from 0 mph because I’m still struggling with how gradually I should press on the brake pedal while turning.

To be honest, I forgot some of the things that I learned last week because I haven’t touched the steering wheel in so long. Hopefully I can get my hands on a vehicle to practice driving this week so I don’t forget the simple basics.

I also find that I have a “greedy” driving style in that I always try to inch up as much as possible before coming to a stop. It’s gotten to the point where my instructor keeps reminding me what to do because he thinks I forgot what to do.

That’s it for my driving journey for now, though. 🙂

Off To Disney

“Why do you want to go to Disney so bad?”

I’m not sure why my family wants to go to Disney World so badly. I initially didn’t really want to go at first for several reasons.

First of all, I would describe my family as workaholics and unfun. They’re constantly working and barely have any taste in modern trends. Going on any sort of vacation with them is extremely boring and the fact that my older brother wouldn’t be able to come with us only makes that worse. The last vacation that we went to was a cruise for about a week and I wanted to get off that ship by the third day. The age gap between my entire family is very large, which definitely contributes to this problem.

Second of all, why would I want to go to Disney World for a second time? Even though the last time I went to Disney World was over 10 years, Disney’s parks are clearly designed for mostly kids and I’m clearly not the same kid I was then. I don’t get how adults can go to Disney World several times a year because that just seems so boring to me. I’m also not sure why the only vacation ideas my family have are vacations that we’ve been on already.

In the end, I was dragged along because my little brother said he doesn’t want to go unless I go. He said he would rather play with his friends at home than go on vacation, which seems extremely silly but that’s probably what being a full time IPad kid does to someone. The good part is that my cousin’s family is coming with us which is going to make my experience a lot better. I haven’t been on a plane flight since I last went to Disney over 10 years ago, so I’m somewhat looking forward to this flight.

I’m pretty sure our hotel is pretty good so I’m excited for the free amenities that are going to come with it. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the free amenities that come with a trip is something I always look forward to. It’s like opening a mystery box and finding random items that are actually useful. I’m also looking forward to actually having decent meals that ISN’T a Chipotle bowl during this trip (they’re scrumptious but I definitely need something new). Hopefully the meals will also be better than the slop meals my grandparents make every night.

I’m going to set a few goals for myself on this Disney trip: First, I’m planning to document every day of my trip and take photos every day. Second, I want to ride as many of the “thrill rides” as possible and enjoy myself. I’ll be leaving on Saturday morning so next week’s journal will include the first two days of the trip and the following week’s journal will contain the last four days of the trip when I come back on the following Thursday evening.

Photo(s) Of The Week

New clothes finally came in! I would say out of the 11 pieces I bought, 7 of them were massive hits.

My dad let me take one of his old cameras because he has so many. I wanted to see if he had a stash of digicams but ended up with this one.

New fit was too good. I definitely want to get a silver necklace most likely during this upcoming Black Friday.

Selfie taken during my third driving lesson.

Mirror picture at the barber while I was waiting for them to mess up my hair. I loved my old hair but unfortunately, it was a bit overgrown so I needed it to get trimmed down a bit.