I remember back when I first started learning to drive, dad tried to teach me in his SAAB 95 BioPower estate, it was a manual, it was terrifying.

I only took a few lessons before stopping, almost two daceds later, 2022 I enrolled with a local driving school, learned in a VW Golf Automatic. It was still scary at first, but at 34 was ready in a different way than when I was 18 or so.

Still, it took me almost a year of driving lessons to pass my test, though I did do it while working full time at the same time (I didn't take a vacation that year, I took sporadic days to attend driving classes).

The first time I took the test I failed as I didn't keep attention to where the car were in relation to a wall and the examinor had to step on the brake.

The second time went well, and I passed it.

Then for half a year, my dad and me went out on the weekends and I drove his car (a Volvo v90 Automatic), that was absolutely critical, I got the practice I needed and got to spend some quallity time with dad.

Then in the summer of 2023, I bought my first car, a 2021 Seat Leon PHEV hatchback Automatic, and I just went nuts!

In the first year of owning the car I drove 40000km, I drove like absolute mad, every day I got in my car and drove for hours, I explored the local area and the car, not to mention got used to driving.

That was also critical, driving so much has made me a confident driver, though perhaps a bit over confident as I got my first speeding ticket this summer going 10kmh over the limit at a surprise police speed trap.

Then this summer a badger decided to run into my car while I was driving 60, getting that sorted now.

These incidents have made me a calmer driver, especially when it is now getting darker here in Sweden.

I have a few rules of my own that have been very helpful to my being a better driver.

A. If something unexpected happens at an intersection, it might be me getting my priorities mixed up, or someone else behavinf oddly, if that happens, when I get home, I go on Google Streetview and look up the intersection and look at signs, makring and the general look of the place from as many directions as possible, I try to figure out why I drove the way I drove, and why other did it their way. This has helped me hugely.

B. I try turn around (at a suitable place) and drive the road properly after something either happened, or nearly happened. I do this so that the last time I drove a road went well, so an old mistake doesn't haunt me making me lore worried.