Lessons from Practical Test

Today I learnt a lot from my second practical test. First, I learn that we can be affected by other people’s mistakes. Second, it’s good to move on. Third, some things cannot be learned last minute. Fourth, small things matter.

In this world, we don’t always suffer due to our own faults. It is possible that we got negative impacts from other people’s mistakes. For example, I was riding comfortably and queuing for the traffic light when somebody hit from the back that my bike fell. It was a small hit at low speed but I got little swollen due to it. At the same time, it also reminds me that other people can suffer because of my mistakes. For example, my wife suffered a lot waiting for me to finish phd due to the mistakes I did both before the phd journey and during the journey itself.

When things happen, we have the choice to move on. I am glad that I moved on for the warm up session, brought ice pack to compress my leg while waiting for the test and did the test as planned. Also, during the the test there were some mistakes but I carried on and continue giving my best.

Although I was riding comfortably, I still failed. There was a significant improvement from 40 points last year to 30 points today, but still far above the threshold of 18 points. Some things just cannot be learned last minute. I wanted to cramp myself with theories from the book last night. It was a good thing that I chose not to do it as my mistakes today are more of habit than cognitive knowledge.

What caused me to fail? Again, those are small things added which become big. I was satisfied my ride today. But apparently there were still those small things such as wobbling, wide turn, sharp turn, poor acceleration that end up to be big. I was also loosen too much by not slowing down more during the narrow plank.

Overall, I am happy with the process and result today. My objective when taking the lesson was to be able to overcome the fear of falling and I have come a long way to be able to get back up and move on like today. Thank you God for Your grace.