What Failing My Japanese Driver's License Test Taught Me

Firstly,  I know way more curse words than I should.

It's half full

While failing at something doesn't make one a failure, it still totally sucks...  Nevertheless, as a ton of quotes will say if you do a quick Google search, failing has a few benefits if you try to find and look at the proverbial brightside.

There are few things in life that I've failed at doing, fewer still are the things I've failed at after putting in time and effort (this is why 10 & 11th grade Spanish doesn't count) and perhaps that's why dealing with my inability to obtain a Japanese Driver's License has been exceptionally difficult.  But as I've tried to work through my 'brightside' approach to the situation I decided to pen a few upsides to screwing the pooch.

1.  Without the ability to find humour in the most dung filled circumtances, you're in trouble:
Boy, I could tell some stories but lemmie just give the highlights
　... and then the wind broke my umbrella so I walked the rest of the way in the rain
    ... and then I realized I'd left something important and had to walk 25 minutes back home
    ... and then I got on the wrong bus
    ... and then I passed my stop
    ... and then I realized my key wasn't turning because I was standing at my neighbor's apt. door and not my own (Well this one has nothing to do with the current topic but it's something to laugh at myself about so what the heck)
I could go on but I think you get the gist.  Then, I'd been in tears, now they're funny stories I share with my friends

2.  We need People:
Many perhaps know the Donne quote
"No man is an island, entire of itself, everyman is a piece of a continent". 
But if there's one thing I hate, it's depending on people for help.  For as long as I (and I can bet my mom too) can remember, I've liked to do things when and how I want; therefore having to wait for another's weigh in doesn't leave much room for that.   I would usually have to be on my face to reach out for help.  But I've truly learned that sometimes you have to phone a friend ...send them the pin to your location and ask them to get you from wherever the heck it is you've found yourself and now you're just too mentally exhausted from getting lost so many times that day to find a bus stop.

And that's a perfect segue to Lesson 3...
3.   People are kind: 
There are varied schools of thought on this whole kindness thing.  Some people find it easier to be kind to people they know and others are kinder to complete strangers than to their own.  Then others just extend themselves regardless of the recipient.  I have had friends (though it's been only a year) who have rescued me when I was lost or stranded, offered me rides so I wouldn't have to walk or figure out the bus and strangers have seen me wandering (because I can't read) and have tried to help me find my bearings and steered me back to the yellow brick road.  Some friends have offered to help me practice by using their cars to prepare for the next test or offered to take me to get my groceries.  The least we (talking to myself) can do is to allow them to extend themselves as they choose, instead of repeatedly declining their offers of assistance because we don't like handouts.

4.　The Japanese names of the cities in which I live and work  木更津市 (Kisarazu) and
君津 (Kimitsu):
Unlike the trains, the buses use absolutely no English and in the inital stages I had to frantically draw for my Common Entrance Exams mental ability skills to try to match the drawings on Google Maps to that on the panel of the approaching bus.  Now, I can recognize my bus when it comes and so there's been  no more inconveniencing a whole bus load of people while I awkwardly show the bus driver where I want to go and have him confirm the bus could get me there or stop to let me back off; or no more mishaps of only realizing I was on the wrong bus when it turned down some unfamiliar street after I'd been hesitant to ask the destination before hand.

5. There are some cool shortcuts in my city:
This point doesnt really need an explanation except to say that these are legit paved footpaths that show up on Google Maps though they seem to run through people's backyards.

Finally, and perhaps the greatest lesson is
6.  God is in Total Control:
It's really more of a reminder that may sound quite cliche; but it's something I believe though also sometimes struggle to accept.  I certainly don't like the process but I must admit that the person I am now is not the one I was at the beginning of it.  Our experiences as well as the attitudes to those experiences mold the people we are.  All my experiences are orchestrated or permitted by God and it's the scariest and simultaneously most comforting thing ever.  Naturally I'm hoping I've learned enough and can move out of this classroom.  I think I've learned my lessons...at least I hope I have.