Wednesday 8 June 2011

Changing Gears

I'm not much of a car person. Most of my friends will attest to that.

I don't know a lot about the different makes or models - the extent of my comment will be to say that a car looks cool. A lot of the time I usually couldn't care less - as long as I get from Point A to Point B. 

However, I've been driving my dad's beaten up old Ford again, and it reminds me of when I first started driving. Archie's jalopy would be a similar sort of parallel with my dad's Ford. When I first started driving, I hated that car - it had a really high clutch, which made balancing absolutely crap, and in my inexperience, the engine would die on me all the time. It was embarrassing, precarious and scary a lot of the time.

Time forges your connection to things, and every time I drive that car, I remember how different I felt that first drive.

As time went by, I ended up acquiring a particular competency with driving the manual - and realised I loved it.

I loved the fact that a manual car responded so fast to my commands - even with my dad's old junk of a car, the gears would slide so smoothly and so responsively in between speeds. I loved the fact that the pickup was so fast, the way that the car would surge forward as soon as I shifted into drive. Once I started getting competent at actually driving, I loved the fact that I was totally in control of this machine, and sometimes it felt like I could fly with it. I loved the roar of the engine, and despite not being much of a speed demon, I loved the fact that sometimes I could push the car through its limits and the two of us would soar.

Who knew that changing gears would feel so good?

4 comments:

  1. I love how metaphorical this entry can get :)

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  2. Thanks - it was meant to be semi-metaphorical. :)

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  3. Semi-metaphors, aside. Nothing beats driving a manual. Unfortunately, I've sold out and now drive an auto. Manual transmission will always be the best.

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