| A Thought Inspired by Experience | Learning Isn’t Just About Skills—It Also Teaches Us to See Life Differently

To give myself more options when renting cars abroad in the future, I enrolled in driving school—and chose to learn in a manual.

For many people who already know how to ride a scooter or drive, this may seem like no big deal. But I’ve spent the past twenty-someyears getting around entirely on foot and by public transport, so I’ve almost always seenthe place where I live from the perspective of the pavement. Even on buses or in taxis, I wouldhide in the back (with my head down, looking at my phone).

It wasn’t until recently, when I began learning to drive, that I found myself out in the middle of the roadduring on-road lessons, seeing the scenery from the road itself. Even the familiar streets near my homeseemed to reveal a different side when viewed from the driver’s seat. And as I studied the road rules handbook for the written test,I realized that even though I walk these streets every day, I had neverreally paid attention to the various traffic signs or understood the rulesthat govern vehicles on the road.

Even in a place where I live my everyday life, there are so many things I’ve taken for grantedand overlooked.

That’s also what makes learning so interesting. It turns out we don’t just acquire a skill: by understandingsomething new and stepping into a different role, we also gain a new perspective on surroundings we oncethought we knew inside out.

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In the photo is my adorable instructor, 陳雪玲, who loves roaming all over the place.