You’re Not Born To Do This

I have just turned 15, which is the minimum age to get your driver’s permit in my state. However, I need to take a written test based on the driver’s manual, and I’m a bit stressed out by this. My grandmother drives me to the DMV and tries to calm me down while I fill out the initial paperwork and turn over my birth certificate to the staff. The staff give me the rundown of all the rules, and then direct me to the computer with the test all set up.

The first thing the test asks for is confirmation of my personal information. No problem; I can do that. I put in my full name and my date of birth. I click the button to proceed, but get bounced back to the information page. Confused, I re-enter the information and try again. Again, I click the button to move on to the actual test, but again, it doesn’t let me. A window pops up saying that I have failed the test and need to speak with DMV staff.

I head back to the main desk, trying not to freak out. The woman behind the desk is just as confused as I am, since the computer is saying that I have failed, but is also saying that I didn’t answer any of the content questions. As we start to go through the forms I filled out to make sure information isn’t missing, I discover that I have written down the wrong date for my birthday; the month and year are correct, but I had, for some reason, written down the wrong day. I get some weird looks for that, but my birth certificate confirms the right day, and I am able to take (and pass) the test.

I was the only one in my group of friends to fail the test for getting my birthday wrong.