M is for Man, Am I Ever Glad That’s Over

I didn’t say a word about it.  I didn’t want anyone else getting nervous for me because I was nervous enough and being wished good luck and given nuggets of advice would only add to my anxiety.  But yesterday I took the road test to exit M2 and get my full M license.  And I passed!  

In the 1970’s when many men my age took their M road test it was a pretty casual exam.  I say men because all of the women riders I know came to the activity much more recently.  Getting a motorcycle license wasn’t anything they – or I – ever considered in their wildest dreams.  But when we hear the guys talk about how you were tested back then it makes us wish we had. You rode to the test centre, checked in, drove around the block while the tester waited in the parking lot for you.  If you came back in one piece, you passed.

The current testing method is more rigorous.  Of course, we have graduated licensing now which they didn’t back then.  And the road test is an actual test on a road. You’re outfitted with a headset attached to a walkie-talkie and the tester follows behind you, telling you what to do and when.  I got a bit lucky because my electronic gizmo wasn’t working properly so I followed her instead of being in the lead.  There were lots of lane changes, stops, turns, one U-turn and one emergency stop.  I rode for nearly half an hour.  At the end of it the tester was telling me how odd it was to try to mark me in that fashion and as she babbled a bit I finally said, um, and the result is?  Pssshhh, she said, waving her hand. “Oh yeah, you passed!”

You have five years to test for the full M after earning the M2 and my five years will be up next July.  I felt ready and decided I’d give it a shot now.  If something happened and I didn’t pass, I could do it again in the spring. I like to have an out, you see.  But I’m an M holder now.  And that’s how I would like to be addressed.  “Meet M license holder Lisa” or “Excuse me, M license holder Lisa, please pass the butter?”  Just for a while.  Maybe a year or so.  Thank you.