This morning was an adventure we all try to avoid. Every few years, this place calls your name and lets you keep using your car. We all dread the experience now but when we were 16 years old we couldn't drag our parents there fast enough. This blog has coincided with my official relocation to Illinois and therefore, I was forced into the unpleasant alter-universe of the DMV, where manners and logic are rejected.
Although this blog is more about the journey, today felt so much more focused on the ends rather than the means. Getting my Illinois drivers license was the target and how it happened, I didn't care. When I arrived at the DMV, you go through one line to get your number to wait in another line. This gentleman decides to tell me that they do not take visa but they take all other major companies, cash, or check. Well of course, I find my wallet holding only visas. Then I tell the royal mannered gentleman that I need a first time Illinois license and to do so I will need a Certificate of Residency. "I know what you need. Just give me what you have." Once he has reviewed my papers for apparently the sole reason of self gratification, he send me to the person with the real power of accepting or denying my license application. This gentleman doesn't have the snap of the welcome team but simply speaks as much as my mailbox outside. Through the entire transaction he opts for pointing and grunting as opposed to using vocabulary. The next step in the process was the most shocking of them all. The written test. After spending hours online reviewing the paperwork I would need to prove I am the person I say I am with 3 different forms and that I am living at where I say I live with 2 additional forms of identification, the website failed to inform me that I would be taking any exams. Which is funny because I thought the next exam I would take would be a little further than 2 months after graduating from college. Pop quiz! The quiz was almost an insult because they ask you to match colors and shapes with names. Sounds like 1st grade to me but at least it was the easiest quiz I had taken in over 6 years. Then the time came. Photo shoot. They dont give you a mirror or a warning of the flash that causes you to need Jesus to put dirt in your eyes to drive home.
Overall, it was an adventure. I met interesting people who have somehow ended up working at the DMV, a job I don't envy. I didn't get the time to ask about their stories today but I know they have them. All of the people in that place from all over the world seeking to have permission to go on adventures of their own. Seeking the ability to use a car to explore the world and meet other people. Just as a bicycle is freedom to explore. The DMV is place that issues not drivers licenses but explorer certifications. I hope that I am able to achieve this and not simply sit passively behind the wheel but to notice my surrounding and what it takes to get from place to place.
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