I easily learned to drive a car at a very early age. For a time, being I knew how to start the car and steer it, I thought I was an accomplished driver as the rest of the drivers on the road. Eventually, I discovered that my vehicle required maintenance and tuning and was susceptible to break downs, minor and major. It was then that I realized that there was more to owning and driving a car than just starting and steering it.

Since I did not have deep pockets, I had to learn to maintain and fix my own cars. Doing so required that I learned the basic mechanics and nomenclature of a vehicle. I did but it took a lot of trial and error and much time. Eventually, I learned that a major breakdown required that I learn much more if I were to repair my own vehicle. I also learned that not knowing how to properly maintain and tune a car could easily lead to poor peformance and major malfunctions.

Eventually, a long eventually, I now knew how to properly maintain my own vehicles and do minor and major repairs. During my extensive learning period, I also learned that there was more to driving a vehicle than just steering it down the road. Proper driving decreased wear and tear on my vehicle, and defensive driving kept me out of accidents.

It has been a long 48 years and I am still learning different things about vehicles. Learning to drive was easy….until I was faced with reality and knowledge.