Reflective Writing

After completing A levels, i was ecstatic as I was finally legal to learn how to drive. The legal age to learn how to drive in Singapore was 18 and finishing A levels meant I had plenty of time to learn before embarking on my University journey. Throughout my secondary and junior colleges time, my father would be the one sending me to school. This greatly inspired and motivated me to drive independently as it would save plenty of travelling time and I would not have to squeeze with the crowd on public transport during peak periods. Furthermore, obtaining a license meant i was able to drive my family as a way to give back to them.

I enrolled in Bukit Batok Driving Centre as it was the closest to my house. Learning to drive was definitely a new experience. It looked relatively easy when i was sitting at the passenger seat, watching my father skilfully maneuverer through traffic. However, it was totally different when I was the one sitting behind the wheels. Being the driver, I realised a lot of responsibility was put onto my shoulder. I had control over the vehicle and therefore, over the lives of my passengers and fellow pedestrians.

One of the components of the driving test was the obstacle course, where one had to do different styles of parking. I remember I was weak in parallel parking and always had to have various attempts before successfully parking the vehicle. Knowing what i was weak at made it easier for me to learn as during my practices, I would specifically ask the instructor to allow me to spend more time in perfecting my parallel parking. Just as the saying goes, ''Practice makes perfect', I saw myself gradually getting better in parallel parking and hence my confidence level increased.

As a result of my constant effort in practising parallel parking, I got less afraid of it. On the actual test day, I kept my composure and did what i would have done during practice and eventually, I passed and got my driver's license! This taught me that nothing is impossible as long as I put in effort and believe in myself.

Similar to parallel parking, English has always been a language i was weak in as I grew up in a Chinese speaking family. As such, in this semester, I hope i can apply my attitude towards driving into learning English. I hope that through ES1102, I can find out which aspects of English i am weak in so i can practice on it. Furthermore, through practicing, i hope i can be less afraid of English and eventually learn to enjoy it.