Achievement Unlocked: How To Drive A Stick

  Stick shift. Manual transmission. For the vast majority of my life, I believed that three types of people had this feature in their vehicle. 1) Farmers with rusty trucks. 2) *Millionaires with flashy sport cars. 3) People who had cars who were made before automatic transmissions were standard.

People like this.

*And all Jason Statham characters.

  I am none of those things. I am not a farmer, a millionaire, a hillbilly, or Jason Statham. I have always driven an automatic (okay, they were rusty, old, piece of sh*t automatics, but they were automatics none the less) and always planned on driving one. 

  That being said, my automatic was dying a slow and painful death. It was less of a 'car' and more of a 'golf ball'. And insane amounts of hail damage aside, the last time I had brought it in for an oil change my mechanics had just laughed and told me it was time for a new car. 

Looked a little something like this.

  They said it had a little more than a week left before it fell apart. At least I think that's what they said. There was a lot of snickering and mumbling. But the gist I was pretty clear on. New car. Now. 

  I'm a 23 year old college graduate who is still learning how to sell herself to the job market. Money isn't something I possess a lot of. But you know what makes it easier to get a job? A car to drive to work. 

  So I went car shopping. Which led me to car salesman. Whose reputations are right up there with lawyers. And I was a guppy in a sea of sharks. I know nothing about cars. Nothing. I know how to put gas in them and drive them to the mechanics when something dings at me. That is all. And I was working on a budget, so trusting the factory to give me a good car right off the bat was out the question. I had to deal with used cars. And used car salesmen. 

  So to take the pressure off of myself, I went to visit some friends who worked at a car dealership to just test drive things out of my price range for fun. And the sales guy let me do it. Bless his soul. But he had a job to do and I needed a car. He introduced me to my soon to be new love. Julia.

Isn't she pretty!?

  And she was in my price range! Could this get any more perfect? I thought not. And that's when "Ben" threw me the curve ball. She was a manual. I gawked. A manual? They still made those? Seriously? He laughed and charmed me and convinced me he could teach me in a very short time. Then I got in the car and saw this.

WTF?! There are 3 pedals. I have 2 feet. Surely there has been a miscalculation.

  Let me restate this for clarity. There are 3 pedals. I have 2 feet. HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO WORK!? This is an evil sort of sorcery and witchcraft. Who has this much coordination? Not I. 

  But after shopping for the next few days and finding literally nothing that I wanted, or trusted, that was in my price range, my need beat out of preferences and I was determined to master said magical ability. I bought Julia. The first week looked a little something like this. 

Except there was no mustang, just a PT Cruiser, and a stoplight on a hill. 

And there was more smoke. A lot more smoke.

  After a week, I finally figured out (through sheer finesse) how to get her into first without needing new tires. The rest was easier than I thought it was going to be. I can now shift easily, break without grinding anything, heck, I can even shift without jerking the car in any way whatsoever. I get amazing gas mileage. And now, God forbid anything ever happen to Julia, I can shop for both manuals and automatics. 

  

Achievement Unlocked: How To Drive A Stick

  Next goal: Achievement Unlocked: How To Drive Like Jason Statham's Stunt Guy