I had my first driving ‘accident’ on Wednesday. I’ve used the quotation marks here for ‘accident’, because I don’t think it really qualifies as one, though C would beg to differ.
I was driving to the supermarket with Noah asleep in the carseat behind, and feeling rather proud of myself for driving more recently. I still don’t drive very long distances, and crowded expressways generally make me rather nervous, but I can get to the nearby malls pretty well, and that’s good enough for me. I can just see all the male drivers shaking their heads now, and thinking, ‘Aiyah, female driver…’
I got to the mall without any problems as usual, and was pleased to spot a parking lot near the lift lobby. Before I continue my story, let me first say that I’ve got pretty bad spatial awareness, and can’t quite judge distances properly. To give you an idea of how bad I am at estimating spaces, sometimes, when I’m walking into my room, I walk into the wall instead, because I erm, thought the door was a little wider than it really is. Honest. I did that quite a bit at my old home, where I lived with my parents for more than twenty years. It’s embarrassing, I know. But now you know how bad my spatial awareness is.
Anyway, when I park, I usually rely on the car’s sensors. The frantic beeping is my cue to stop, but this time, I didn’t stop in time. There was a car waiting to get out of its lot, and I was in its way. C always tells me that I have the right to park the car slowly, but I always get stressed out when I see the driver watching me, and I feel obliged to hurry. This was one of those times, so because I thought the sensors were being overly-cautious and beeping frantically too early, I decided to push my luck a little more, and just reverse a teeny bit more, before re-adjusting the car. Wrong move. I felt the car bump into the pillar behind, and quickly moved the car forward again. Noah was still sound asleep, so I figured the bump wasn’t that serious.
When I got out of the car to check the damage, I was horrified.
The Damage
I took a photo of it, sent it to C, and apologised immediately. It’s our car’s worst ‘accident’ to date, with a crack in the bumper, and ugly yellow paint streaked across it. Sigh. Guess I have to learn not to get stressed out by cars waiting for me to park, and to trust that the sensors are beeping for a reason.
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