So, with the help of my dad, I got a new car the other day - he's the car guy of the family, so he did all the research and gave it his seal of approval; I simply bought it. It's a 2006 Saturn Ion, a sporty, fuel-efficient coupe that is, as my dad says, "over-built and underrated," referring to its durable engine.
And it'd darn well better be a durable engine, because it's a stick-shift. And, as anyone who's ever driven a manual transmission knows, stick-shifts are a bit difficult to get the hang of. I spent the first five days of owning it just practicing; my dad took me out for a bit on the first day to remind me of the basics (I say remind because he had already begun teaching me how to drive a while back), but after that I was by myself, driving up and down the streets in my neighborhood.
I'm getting the hang of it, and my confidence is going back up, but I still have a lot of shakey starts here and there. Regardless, however, this comic is more humorous than realistic.
I will say one thing, though: if I put on some powerful, fast-paced music, and then proceed to smoothly shift through all five gears at a decent rate of speed, it's hard not to feel like a total boss.