Well done Tom, who passed today with just 5 driver faults. This one has to go right up there on my list of best or most satisfying passes of all time.
I taught Tom’s sister and then – while I was teaching him – his girlfriend. His sister passed some time in the middle of last year, and his girlfriend earlier this year. His sister had told me about him while I was teaching her, and she’d said how he’d taken and failed his test 5 times and then his theory test certificate ran out and he’d got to do it again.
I didn’t give it much thought after that, but a few weeks after she’d passed I got a call from Tom. I was immediately aware of how he could talk until the cows came home! You just couldn’t shut him up. His favourite topic for discussion, I discovered, was:
- how long it had taken him this far
- how many lessons he’d had
- how many tests he’d taken
- how his theory test had run out
- how he’d had to take it again
- how everyone was passing before him
- how it wasn’t fair that everyone should pass before him
- etc.
- go back to the first thing and start again
Don’t get me wrong. There was nothing wrong with him as such, but it was killing him not to be able to drive. And he’d get distracted by things extremely easily, which talking while he was driving made much worse.
I quickly suspected that there was something other than nerves involved. Tom was the one I was referring to when I mentioned ADHD not long back.
The thing was: I knew he could drive, but even the smallest mistake would send him into a spiral of depression – and far more serious mistakes due to dwelling on the initial one. But no one – including me – seemed to be able to get this simple fact into his skull!
You have to realise that this had nothing to do with how good a driver he was – it was all down to the pressure he was under to pass his test. I could trigger him at any moment just by mentioning something that I knew was on his list of “favourite topic” subjects. I used to wind him up deliberately sometimes just to show what effect it had.
Anyway, this was his first test with me after a concerted effort after being diagnosed with adult ADHD (which made him and his family feel much better now they understood why he’d been in trouble a lot at school – he’s in his late 20s now).
This is why this job can be so enjoyable. It’s impossible to explain how much this pass means to him.