I had been looking forward to this day for months. It was the day most teenagers look forward to. It was the day I was finally supposed to get my license. My dad and I had woke up early, about 6 am, so we could be sure to get to the DPS office before it opened. We had no idea if they took walk-ins but after weeks of my stepmom calling the DPS office in Decatur and Bowie with no success of scheduling an appointment, my dad decided it would be best to just show up. We left my house at about seven so we could go pick up my grandpa’s car since I didn’t feel confident driving my stepmoms Jeep since it’s a standard or parallel parking my dad’s Ford F250. We got my grandpa’s Jeep and headed to the DPS Office in Bowie. When we got there, I practiced my parallel parking a few times since we had a few minutes to spare. When the doors finally opened another girl, our dads, and I went in with the hope of finally getting scheduled to taking the driving test. “If you’re here to take a driving test, we don’t accept walk-ins, you need to call and schedule an appointment.”
Against our hopes you had to have an appointment, so the other girl, our dad’s, and I all pull our phones out to start calling. “No phones allowed inside. You need to go outside.”
The four of us stepped outside, hoping we could actually get through on time. “Hey, if one of us gets through, we should see if we could both get scheduled.” The other girl told me.
After my dad and I called at least one hundred times, we finally got through. My dad answered all her questions and then told her that our cousin was with us and she needed to schedule too. She didn’t believe us at all and we just made her angrier than she already was. We stepped in and she handed us some paperwork to fill out. When I was finished, I went to stand against the wall where she told me. She finally called on me and asked for my paperwork and other information. “Where did you take Driver’s Education?” “In Kentucky, where I used to live.” “Well I don’t know if this card that says you took it will work. Let me call around.”
She called several other people who either didn’t know or weren’t available, she finally got through to someone who also had to look into it. Luckily, it was acceptable so we could move on to the next step. “I need a proof of residency like a bill or your insurance.”
I looked to my dad hoping he had brought that without me knowing but he hadn’t since he had no idea that that was needed. “I have my driver’s license.” He said. “That won’t work. We need something like a bill.”
Unfortunately, we had nothing. We were fifteen minutes from home and my stepmom was with my sister at the doctors’ office. My dad called the City Building hoping they could fax a bill; nobody answered. He called my stepmom hoping she had left the doctors office. Fortunately, she had but she was still ten minutes from home and with how angry the lady already was, we didn’t know if she was in the mood for waiting. Her coffee had kicked in and she was in a slightly better mood. “You have ten minutes and if you don’t have it by then, you’ll have to come again on another day.”
My stepmom got home and found some bills with our proof of residency and started to fax them and of course it ended up going super slow. I kept looking at the clock and after every minute that passed by, I got more anxious. It had been at least fifteen minutes when the fax finally arrived but either the DPS lady didn’t notice or didn’t care. Either way, I was extremely thankful. She put the information into her computer. “What vehicle will you be using to take your test?” She asked. “A 2013 Jeep Wrangler.” “Well that’s not on the insurance card.” She mentioned as she listed the other vehicles on the card.
I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think getting my license would be such a hassle. As my dad went out to check for another card she told me in a way where I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.