Driver's license

First, please look at past posts to see some of the pictures I took! Now, to the meat of this post. I'm 17 and an unlicensed driver. I have driven twice. Once, I drove Allie Hutler's car up and down my driveway. Two weeks ago, I drove John Webber's car from one parking lot to another one minute away. Both times I was terrible. I swear that I thought driving would be easy: apparently the car can even go forward without pressing on the gas pedal? Perhaps I'm being unreasonable, but I was frustrated when my parents expected that I be a good driver before I take my driving test. Let me paint the picture as I had imagined it. August 19th would come and I'd be 18. I'd wake up, have a coffee, preferably some encouraging music would play in the background as a friendly bird chirped on my window sill (actually, exactly as this video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJoIaXZ0rw). Either my Mom or Dad would drive me to the DMV. I'd logic my way through the written portion, get behind the wheel, start, stop, turn, park, and woosh, I'd walk out of the DMV with a license ready to drive myself to the Five Guys by the Newport Bridge anytime I wanted. Now my parents are telling me I need lessons with an instructor -- first with an automatic and then behind a stick (because that's all we own). And for some reason, every time I drive, the car jerks forward and back: it's never a smooth ride. So what this long didactic schmaltz is getting at is that it will be awhile before I get my license, which is annoying. Maybe that common sense thing everyone talks about is important after all?