My Driver's Test

As one of the youngest of all of my friends (I didn't turn 16 until May of my sophomore year of high school) the anticipation of my drivers test had been bubbling in my stomach for months on end. That fateful day will be etched in my memory forever. On May 18, 2005, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. in my pitch black room nervously awaiting the pivotal moment in which my teenage hopes would transform into one of two things-- blissful reality or shattered glass. Everything leading up to that moment zipped through my head. The nerve racking "practice" driving with my mom in which she would dramatically grab onto anything stable in the car, solving the mystery of the art of parallel parking with my dad, and mastering those illusive and quite awkward lane changes. After primping in my bathroom (Of course, I needed to look good for my drivers test!), I made my way to the kitchen and ate the miniscule amount of breakfast that my jittery stomach could handle. The next thing I knew, a black sedan pulled in my driveway and honked several times, signaling the driving instructor's arrival. I took to the driver's seat and we drove to the Department of Public Service building in Edmond, Oklahoma. 

The DPS building might have been the most depressing environment I've ever experienced. A musty smell consumed the room and the walls were painted a drab gray. Once I had filled out the tedious paperwork, I left the gloomy DPS building for the car that would determine my fate as a driver. In my narrow 16-year-old point of view, this was my defining moment. Moments before the test began, I almost told the instructor that I needed to leave to throw up. The pressure was building and I was psyching myself out. "Pull it together," I chastised myself. My hand crept onto the gear shift (I'm not really sure what the proper name for it is!) and I thrust into drive. I backed out of the parking lot successfully  and performed the commands that the robotic instructor gave me. In my mind, the actual test is a messy blur that I do not remember vividly. I do remember the instructor writing my final evaluation, his pen rapidly scratching against the evaluation form. I must admit, there was an abundance of red ink. Fortunately, I barely passed the test, scoring a 79 percent. My fate was sealed--I was officially a legal driver. No longer would I be subject to the pain of having my mom drive me around. The ironic thing is, now that I have been driving for four years I constantly beg my mom to cart me around like a 15-year-old. 

Truth vs Fact

I think that the last paragraph of "The Karheef" perfectly demonstrates the point that Pico Iyer is trying to get across. It says:

I sat in California and listened to the imprecations and thought back to the driver who had got out in the middle of the night to buy me chocolate, the woman turning to the little girl in the airline office, my sad-eyed guide pointing to the graves of his mother; his sister, the Indian nuns, the British officers. Many of them, I suspected, had friends and loved ones of their own in New York (even in the World Trade Center), whom they must be worried about even now. In the streets the children would be playing tag in the dusk...while we sat in our mansions watching versions of their lives onscreen, and wishing destruction on them all.   

This passage demonstrates Iyer's point that we can watch the headlines on the television and take them in as facts that have been "fact checked" by editors; however, to actually know the truth of these people is to see them as people and not the terrorist enemy. Iyer develops the characters in "The Karheef" to serve as examples of how the people who we view as the enemy have loved ones who have died, live through emotional human experiences, and do simple nice deeds (i.e. the driver who brings Iyer chocolate).  Through each individual encounter, Iyer urges the reader to look past the "enemy" stereotype of the people in Yemen in order to see humanity and culture. Iyer attests to this in his interview when he says that in his account he tried to depict "a rounded and human understanding of Yemen as it exists somewhere deeper than the political sphere and in all that is left out from out headlines."                                                                                               

Second Meeting with Jose

My second meeting with Jose was fairly normal. I was excited that we had finally met up again, because we hadn't met in three weeks for various reasons. Also, Jimmy came along with me. We met at the bookstore cafe again. Jose had begun to work on some of the exercises in his GED book with his other partner. We decided that he would work on math and English with the other partner and science and social studies with Jimmy and I. We assigned several exercises for him to complete by our next meeting on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we plan to go over anything that he has questions about. He seems to be extremely educated so far, because he has had no questions over anything. I think that he will definitely be successful in passing his GED exam. I'm looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday!