I am writing this on the day that I passed my driving test on the first try in Brooklyn, all thanks…read moreto the amazing and patient Erika (and with some help from Gus as well) from Revolution Driving School. TLDR - if you're a nervous or anxious driver, or have had difficulties with other instructors in the past, Erika is absolutely the one you should get started with. My apologies for the novel that's about to follow:
To start off with, I am (or was), an incredibly nervous driver. While I had gotten my license by the skin of my teeth back in 2018, I developed a severe phobia after a bad experience on a highway and let my license lapse, not realizing that if your license is expired for more than two years, you can't just renew it - you have to take the whole road test again. When I learned this, I became so nervous that I started having insomnia and couldn't fall asleep - that's how nervous I was thinking about getting back on the road again.
After completing my permit, I worked up the courage to book a lesson with Erika. Now, I've had my fair share of bad driving instructors - they often are gruff, not that great at teaching or explaining, and not great at making you feel comfortable or relaxed. Erika is the exact opposite. She is warm and supportive, without being overly so - you never feel like you have to put on a show for Erika. The day of my first lesson I woke up with full body chills and nerves, but I immediately felt at ease with Erika when I was in the car during my first lesson and knew I made the right decision booking lesson with her.
Slowly but surely with each lesson with Erika, I got more confident behind the wheel. She positively reinforces when you do something well, and explains patiently where you can improve. She also steadily increases your abilities over time, slowly taking on new things like driving in a different neighborhood or on a busy street, without rushing you into something that can feel difficult. Since parallel parking is my achilles heel, she made sure to spend extra time walking me through this during our lessons.
Leading up to my road test I also decided to take a couple extra lessons with Gus, who only just recently became available again for lessons. Gus has a very different demeanor than Erika - more reserved - and so while he may not be the best person to take a first lesson with if you are extremely nervous and anxious like me, I did find my lessons with Gus to be helpful and so the combination of working with both of them made me feel doubly prepared.
On the day of my road test, Erika had the perfect demeanor. She made me feel assured, but never put undue pressure on me - she struck the right balance of being supportive without having that become a stressor in and of itself. She answered all my last minute nervous questions ("Can you walk me through again what to do if I think I'm going to hit the curb while parallel parking? What if I'm too wide?"), without ever making me feel bad about it.
I was blessed with a clear day and relatively empty roads, but regardless of the good conditions I know I can owe the credit of my passing mostly to the patience and guidance of Erika. She is truly life changing - she changed me from an incredibly nervous driver who would break down into a ball of nerves even thinking about being behind the wheel, to a confident driver who according to my evaluator, did a "perfect" parallel park - something that I would NEVER have thought in a million years I would hear anyone say.
All told, I did 13 lessons before my road test - 9 with Erika and 4 with Gus. While it's possible a less nervous driver could have done less (by my 10th lesson everything really started to click), I'm glad I did those extra lessons to make me feel fully prepared.
I highly recommend Revolution Driving School, and Erika in particular, to anyone who is nervous or anxious about driving. While of course what happens on road test day is your responsibility, you will feel so prepared working with them. I can never thank them enough for giving me my confidence back!!
