Today, I am unloving...

Isabella is going to college this coming schoolyear so she will be taking driving lessons before the summer ends. 

I can't help feeling ripped off by the fact that she will be taking lessons to drive an automatic. Having taken lessons at A1 Driving School the summer before college myself, there seemed to be way better value for money learning to drive a car with manual transmission. Now that they don't need to teach the lessons on shifting gears, on getting the right rhythm of releasing the clutch and stepping on the gas (in other words, "making timpla") and on driving on an incline ("hanging"), I'm not really sure what lessons I'm going to be paying for on an automatic.

Okay, okay, they may not bring her to steep inclines...

but they''ll make her drive in busy thoroughfares... 

... (I got honking-jeepney-and-bus-filled North Edsa on my Day 1 years ago!) which I would never do if she took driving lessons from me. And yes, they'll still have to teach her to parallel-park. 

Still... the absence of the manual gear shift just seems to eliminate the lesson that requires the most teaching. And somehow, it doesn't seem to be "real" driving when you don't know how to shift gears. That seems to be the essence of driving - feeling your car's power, knowing the right moment to shift gears as you speed up on the highway.

So today, I am unloving... that Isabella's driving lessons may teach her how to maneuver her car around the city, but it might not teach her the true essence and joy of driving. 

Photos from annniegirl and americanhoney.

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