This year is the year that I will finally start driving lessons.
I am fed up of my local Trent Barton buses never being on time and always charging ridiculously high fares, I am fed up of not being able to just get up and go wherever I fancy going and I am fed up of feeling awful when I ask my parents or friends for a lift somewhere....and I have put off driving lessons for more than long enough.
Okay - so I'm 18, it's not like I'm almost 90 and only now learning to drive, but I feel old before my time because everyone else my age or a year below is already bombing around in their cars.
I say 'start' driving lessons because there is no guarantee that I will be driving around by the time 2015 rolls in... that isn't because I don't think I can do it, I have a dad who had aims of me learning to drive a car or motorbike before I could even talk - I know more than most. My anxiety levels are at the most stable level they have ever been and I am determined enough to get it done. I say that because no matter how much I earn, I will always think 'I don't have the money'.
Which is stupid.
I do have the money, not necessarily enough for a car and insurance outright, but I certainly earn enough to pay for the lessons I will need and my theory and practical. I'm on pretty much twice what I used to earn in my old job and I managed to fork out for a ludicrous £500+ a year bus fare then.
I am determined to pay for every single lesson I take, both tests, the car, the insurance, the tax, the petrol, the MOT's, everything - MYSELF.
I think it's lovely that some people are given a car for their birthday by their parents, or get everything paid for, but that's just not me - I personally don't wish for my parents to pay for ANYTHING for me any more. I'm 18, I'm working, there is no excuse or reason for me not to be giving them full board each and every month and paying for everything I want or need with no help. They have given me more than enough for the last 18 years and I could not be more grateful - hence the fact I now wish to fund the thing's in my life on my own.
So now is the time to really buckle down and save, save, save.
But there's just a few things standing in my way: my own impatience and the car I have set my heart on....
A Nissan Figaro.
Any guys reading this post (I would be seriously surprised if you are) will currently be clicking the exit button in disgust, my boyfriend will more than likely point blank refuse to get in the passenger seat...
But any girls - you have to agree, it's a stunner.
I have loved this car since the moment my mum first brought her's home when I was 10. Our Minty Monty. It was an absolute dream.
But we had to sell him on to what I hope is a good owner after my brother thought it would be a good idea to grow to a whopping 6'2 and no longer fit without being folded like a beach chair...
That day my heart broke as much as my mum's did, and I vowed one day I would get my own.
But they are rare, expensive and the parts if a repair is needed are nearly impossible to obtain......meaning my saving my need to take itself up a gear or two before I have even a chance....
And that's before I have even passed or decided on the colour.... ;)
Watch this space, keep off the roads once I set off and actually keep off the pavements too....if I manage to reach the pedals on my driving instructors car - then you all better be careful in the surrounding area for a few months!
Lots of love, Emily-Rose xoxo
