Don’t let the fear of starting stop you. 

Anybody else spend their life waiting for the bus? I DO! Most weekends I sit in a freezing cold bus shelter wondering when the shining lights of the bus with are finally going to come around the corner at the bottom of the high street! But NO! The timetables are often wrong, the bus stop seats are cold, my fingers and toes begin to freeze, and I sit there for sometimes up to an hour waiting for my bus to appear! And I’m always the unlucky one, my bus is always the one that doesn’t come quickly, I spend days praying to get out of work on time so my bus won’t speed past me as I run up the high street hoping it will wait! More often than not it doesn’t...

Don’t get me wrong I love the feeling of being able to sit on the bus with my headphones in, I block out the world and focus on the music and the lyrics of some of my favourite artists. I find myself feeling like I’m in a music video looking out the window when a sad song comes on and it’s raining. McFly, Queen, Panic! At The Disco and even the Frozen 2 soundtrack can sometimes be the best company after a long shift at work or a busy day at uni. But as they try to keep me cheerful while I wait in the rain or wind on a cold winter evening, I find myself becoming increasingly angrier at the bus systems! So finally, after years of these long waits I decided enough was enough.


I was never one who was going to learn to drive. The prospect of being totally in control of a moving vehicle terrified me. Common sense is not my strongest point and even though I’m clever academically some days I can be extremely stupid. All of these added together put learning to drive at the bottom of my list of things I wanted to achieve. So as 17 approached and my mom said do you want driving lessons for your birthday my answer was a firm no!


But sometimes it only takes one day to change your mind. Picture the scene. A warm day in June. Me, headphones in, McFly most likely playing, a casual walk to the bus stop at 3:49 my bus due at 3:56 and me then ready to start work at 4:30. 4:25 my bus finally arrived! The one I was waiting for had come early and the one that would come after and get me there just in time hadn’t shown up. I’d been nearly 30 minutes late for work and anybody who’s been really late knows it is just embarrassing!


So, I decided that day that I was sick of waiting for the bus, I was going to face my fear and get in contact with a driving instructor. End of August I finally plucked up the courage after a firm yet encouraging TEXT HIM NOW from my best friend. Now I was right, some take to driving like a duck to water. I am not one of them people, two attempts at my test later and I still haven’t passed. But I was wrong about one thing, I LOVE driving. Being behind the wheel brings me great joy and the thought of one day owning my own car, playing my music and taking my friends on day trips, going where I want to, driving myself to work or picking my family up brings me great excitement!


The moral of this tale is if you fear something you should still try it! You may find a new thing you love to do. Don’t let fear stop you from doing something you could learn to love! If I’d known that sooner, I wouldn’t be writing the first draft of this blog on my phone while waiting for the bus that I missed by 5 minutes.

- Courtney -