May 31, 2022

 It was a big week in the life of my teenage daughter. She got her L and is now licensed to drive with me in the car. 

Where the hell did the last sixteen years go?

It seems like only yesterday I was walking to the swimming pool pushing her in a stroller. Now she is turning into a young woman soon to be in charge of getting herself to the swimming pool. 

Getting a driver’s license sure has changed since I was her age. Not only was it another province it was another world back in 1984 when I got my learner’s license. Back in those days in Alberta, we got our Learner’s permit when we were only fourteen years old. But then we had to wait until we were sixteen for the full driver’s license. But at that time we could ride a motorcycle under 120cc with our learners. I got a 100 Enduro and rode everywhere. There was no such thing as graduated licenses. At sixteen I got my driver’s license and I was fully responsible and treated like an adult. 

Now they have changed the rules so it’s harder. Insurance is also a different beast in today’s world.

Not that getting her L was very hard.

It was much harder getting in to write the test than it was to pass it. It started with making an appointment., it was challenging getting her to go for the test in the first place. It’s been almost six months since she was eligible. After months of bugging her, we finally made the appointment.

The big day came on a Monday. 

I do hate Mondays sometimes. She texted from school to grab her passport for ID, but it wasn’t where she thought it was. It would turn out that it was in the bag that her mom was supposed to drop off. A bag mom never forgets to drop off. Except for the one time we needed it.

She texted that her Birth certificate was good enough. Naturally, I figured she had her school ID so no big deal…

As I walked out of the house, birth certificate in hand, I looked at my own passport. Like a total jackass, I walked out of the house without my passport. No big deal right, except I just had my driver’s license replaced so it was my only form of picture ID.

I hate Mondays.

The ICBC office in Kelowna is about a thirty-minute drive from my home in West Kelowna. No big deal, I picked her up early from school, and off we went to the appointment.

ICBC is full these days so we sat in the crowded office and waited her turn.

Fifteen minutes after our arrival her number was called. We get to the front and of course, they asked her for ID. Her passport was in her mom’s car…

“Can you meet with the kid’s passport?” I called her mom and tried to make it work. But it would be a forty-minute round trip to grab the only picture ID my kid had. Her school ID apparently disappeared and she was using a photo of it on her phone.

We tried to figure out a meeting place and I was going to leave my daughter there to write the test. Except they wanted ID from me as well. Who would have thought the yellow letter they issued me the week before was not sufficient ID.

What a waste of time.

We got back home and looked online for another appointment time. They listed Summerland but there were no online bookings available. I went old-school and phoned them. Would it be easier? The soonest we could get into ICBC in Kelowna was another 9 days away. The nice voice on the other end of the line told us to come on down there were no appointments needed. 

Summerland it was.

We would try the next day. I picked up my daughter and off we went to Summerland. Summerland is a little further than the ICBC offices in Kelowna, but it is a much nicer drive. It would work out for me because I needed to go to Penticton anyway, I would leave my kid to write the test and go the extra twenty minutes south while she was writing it. They say you have an hour to write the test and it takes around fourty-five minutes, that’s for the slow kids I guess…

Even though there was another kid writing the test ahead of my daughter I still got the text, “where are you Dad? I’m done.”

That was fast.

When I got back to pick up my kid she was more concerned that she had to wait fourty minutes than she was excited for her L.

Kids these days have no patience.

I hope she has patience learning to drive. I hope I don’t get too many grey hairs trying to teach her. 

And time keeps racing on.