My mother never learned to drive. She was scared of the traffic. She was a passenger in a car accident that rather traumatized her from driving. But she had a driver’s license.
Here’s how she get her license without ever learning to drive. My dad went into the testing area with her and completed the written test for her. We had a family friend who was a behind-the-wheel examiner, and he passed her without going through the entire testing route. The rationale for cheating was because she needed a valid form of identification. This was before the DMV gave out California IDs.
Looking back, I believe my mother would’ve been a different person and lived a happier life if she did not cheat to get her driver’s license. Maybe she would’ve been compelled to take greater efforts in learning to drive, such as take lessons from a professional driving school and overcoming her fears.
As it was, she had a false sense of accomplishment, yet she actually didn’t know anything about driving. She got what she needed – an ID – but she did not gain the benefit of what driving would have enabled her to do. I think driving would’ve given her the autonomy and power that she didn’t have. She was always dependent on her husband and others to go anywhere. She could not go where she wanted to go, do what she wanted to do. It kept her at home, with no outlet. It kept her in her fears.
I wished I was old enough then to see that and encouraged her to drive.
It is indeed true, that when you cheat, you are only cheating yourself.
Don’t take shortcuts. You will never know what you could have been if you actually earned what you have.