Sometimes, we learn things out of necessity.  This happened to me when I learned how to drive a stick shift.  In this article, I will tell you how I learned to drive a stick shift in an effort to help you achieve the same goal.

My story of necessity begins on my 16th birthday when my parents were out of town.  They left me at home for two weeks with the idea that, since I was 16 and car-less, I could not get into too much trouble.  My mom said with a smile as she left, “Honey, when we return, I will take you to get some driving lessons so that you can get your driver’s license.” Little did she know of my conviction to get my driver’s license, and a car, while they were out of town.

So, I had a goal of getting a car and a driver’s license quickly.  However, how do you get a car without a driver’s license?  For that matter, how do you even get to the car dealership?

Well, I called my friend Jenny who gratuitously offered to drive me to the car dealership.   I had searched for the best new car incentives and picked out my car in the newspaper.  Upon visiting the dealership, I quickly realized that the car in question had a manual transmission.

I was fairly adept at an automatic transmission after some lessons with my dad (that my mom did not know about), but I had no idea how to drive a manual stick shift.

Using the money that I had saved from my summer job, I bought the only car that I could afford, which happened to be this car with the manual transmission.  I worked out a deal with the sales girl that if I bought it, she would drive it back to the house for me.

Thus, I found myself sitting in my driveway, staring at my new car, with no idea how to drive it.  Now-a-days, there are online instructional videos for this type of thing but, in those days, this did not exist.

With the little that I was told by the sales person, I put the car in neutral and rolled out of the driveway.  I played with the gears a bit, with the clutch held down, to get a feel for where they were.  Then, I tried to go in first.

The car died.  But after three attempts, I realized that I needed to let the clutch up slowly while pressing the gas a bit.  As I got going a little faster, I put the car in second gear.  Things were a bit jerky as I drove around the neighborhood but I was managing.  After about one hour of driving around in my neighborhood, I had basically learned how to drive this stick shift.

I then proceeded to get my driver’s license and I found a list of the top insurance companies that provided the best plan.  I selected the least expensive one and I was all set now with a car, a license, and insurance.

When my parents arrived home, they asked me:  “Whose car is that in the driveway?”

I answered proudly:  “It’s mine.”