Nomina facit, negotium conficit

It would be oh so very convenient if I were to relay to any PDI's reading this blog a concatenation of events which will in all likelihood result in a driving test pass or fail.

I know how we humans do like to seal the deal.
  
Fellow driving instructors who are most assiduous in their duties all seek to understand what are the ingredients for success in driving tests.  I'm confident that some like to portray an imperious hauteur who desire no more of such things; there is no mystery, only mastery.  I beg, with lowered eye level and humbling obsequiousness, to differ.

Once in a while, when the Gods desire to lighten my life, I find myself working with a pupil of incredible talent.  There is no puffery here or unnecessary grandeur; I do mean that these moments in time are spectacular.  I tell my kids, wife, work friends that I have witnessed something exceptional.  But it does not in itself result in a driving test pass.

Similarly, if I cast my mind back about eight years, a kind and gentle couple entered my life and added some sunlight to the proceedings.  The female of the couple was shy, introverted, nervous, prone to anxiety attacks, unassuming and pretty fearful of driving.  She passed first time, while her confident and very able husband failed.  Oh, the drama.

Do you ever listen to a song, look at some art, read poetry and freeze in awe of the magnificence?  Hair raising, goosebumps, tear-inducing moments.  I see this in my pupils.  Just as with creative artists, it always surprises me how these pupils take the talent given to them for granted.  It is a talent of that I'm sure; you could say a gift.  I listen to their stories, and they live the same lives as we all do; there is no different upbringing or particular circumstance that gives them some advantage in life.

If you can sing, you can sing - so please do sing.

And some will, and do, and they will in time I'm sure, flourish - with or without a full drivers licence.  But when I witness brilliance which is shrouded in self-doubt and loathing, I will encourage.  There is nothing false in my words.  It isn't unkind or disingenuous; I only have a limited amount of time on this planet, and I can't bear to see raw, unmitigated talent going to waste.