I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was 10 years ago, right down to the week, that I was standing in line, waiting to get my first ever driver’s license. I had all the forms filled up, the questionnaire sorted out and the fees paid, and later that day I walked out of there a duly licensed driver. A freer man, so to speak, though a freer pimply 17-year old is more like it.
Back then, I was on my last year of high school, eager to graduate and enter the world. I didn’t know what kind of adventure life would be like and where I’d be 10 years after, especially with college, relationships, work and the extra pounds along the way.
In 3,650 days (more or less) many things have changed too, a lot of them for the better. The actual identification card for my first license took nearly 6 months to be produced thanks to the bureaucracy, and I had to drive just with my official receipt until then. When I renewed my license a few years back, it only took one quick bathroom break for my card to be completed.
The North Luzon Expressway was just a shadow of what it is now, and going anywhere north on Manila was pretty difficult. A trip to Baguio 250 km away meant 6 to 10 hours of life you’ll never get back. Do the math. Subic took a while too, as the drive meant the stressful dodging of buses, jeepneys and tricycles for most of the way. Thanks to the better North Luzon Expressway and new Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway, those are distant memories now, though I wish they’d do something about the slight tollgate overload that followed.
Carburetted cars were still being sold in showrooms, and now they’ve been virtually phased out in favor of more powerful and more efficient fuel-injected engines. Drag was all the rage back then, thanks to Vin Diesel and Fast and the Furious. Now it’s drifting, thanks to Takumi, Initial D and another Fast and the Furious. The favorite size for tuner rims was 17 inches. Now it’s 18 inches. Or 19. Or 20. Or 21. I’m not even sure anymore.
Strange as it seems though, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Left-turns at intersections were still allowed in Metro Manila’s streets. Thanks -or no thanks- to Bayani Fernando and the MMDA, you now have to double back and do U-turns. In rush hour traffic conditions, not much has changed, and the extra distance driven thanks to doubling back meant more fuel consumed. And don’t get me started on the pink fences and how corrupt his blue-clad troops are.
Gas used to cost about 20 pesos for a liter, now it’s more than double that. In 2008 and 2009 it was triple at 60 to a liter. Drug tests and emissions tests weren’t mandatory at the LTO like they are now, but there’s a line of guys offering their clean urine for a fee outside the drug testing labs and belching buses, jeeps and trucks are still somehow plying the streets.
2000 was also the last pre-9/11 year, hence air travel was still convenient, meaning you didn’t have to pass through a metal detector as many times as it took to give you two-headed kids. Parking in malls was also easier, as guards didn’t use mirrors to check under your car (to check for an oil leak, perhaps) or pop your trunk for a peek (probably to check my spare tire) like they do now, lending a futile illusion of security. Seriously, any dedicated terrorist would not be ridiculously careless enough to keep an IED in plain sight.
Frustrating as those are, I don’t care. Like in life, if you let terrorist threats, muggings around the corner and corrupt cops affect you and rule your life, you’ll stop living… ironic as that seems.
You see, even if you and I have to deal with all that, there’s one thing I realized in 10 years of driving, regardless of where in the world you live: there’s no freedom like being behind the wheel of your own car.
That’s why men and women learn to fly airplanes, get behind the helms of ships and apply to fly space shuttles. Being behind the wheel of anything is a peerless freedom; the ultimate symbol of someone charting his or her own course in life. Every single day before I got my license, I was merely a passenger. Ever since that day I walked out of the licensing office a decade ago, I became the driver.
Right now, I’m ready for the next 10 years of life, and I’m even more excited for another 10 years behind it’s steering wheel.
How about you?
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Vince Pornelos
Associate Editor
www.autoindustriya.com
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