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Growing up as a late 90s to early 2000s kid, Lizzie McGuire and Disney were all the craze. Honestly, I think everyone wanted to be Lizzie McGuire at some point in their childhood. She had Gordo and Miranda, and then she even got a movie where she met a handsome Italian pop singer (who turned out to be terrible in the end, unfortunately) and she sang in front of thousands of people, and still got Gordo in the end. But mostly, I wanted to be Lizzie McGuire for one solid reason: that Vespa ride in The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
Coming to Taiwan, I was well aware after the first experience I had here of the driving situation. Public transportation is readily available in the form or trains, buses, taxis, and the like, but many people have scooters or motorcycles. I have written about traffic before in Taiwan and because of the craziness of the traffic, I didn’t indulge in a scooter until five months after I arrived. That scooter, unfortunately, turned out to be a dud, and I was scooterless less than a month later, due to my poor decision making skills. But, a little after my twenty-third birthday, I bought my scooter: a beautiful, white 125cc scooter I named Diamond.
She’s carried me a fair bit around the area, from Wanggaoliao (a night view area) to the reaches of Taiping district where there’s nothing but trees, monkeys, and views of the area that take your breath away. Diamond has been a real gem to me, and honestly, having her and learning how to drive a scooter has made me seriously consider buying one later on when I return to America.
I’ll never forget my first time driving my scooter, as it was by far probably the most terrifying. I bought my first one–the dud one–and had been too scared to try to use it on my own, so I enlisted the help of some friends of mine: Amy, Linda, and Rachel. They all lived a few minutes away from me and worked for different branches of HESS in the west side of the city. They came over on their scooters and told me that we were going to just drive around alleys. Cool. I wasn’t going onto major streets, like Wenxin, when I was shaking like a Chihuahua out of fear that I would do something crazy stupid and end up in an accident already.
We started off steady, like riding a bike, and I was getting the hang of it. Despite my bad nerves, they were ever so encouraging. I had mastered small streets, and then they told me the next step: driving around bigger streets. I lived along one of the busier streets in Taichung, Beiping, known for its markets, and I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but nonetheless, I agreed. I had to do it, or I’d never do it.
As a group of four, we made our way onto the street, turning north. Headed for Wenxin. I wanted to panic, but we weren’t given any time since the light was green. Wenxin, with four lanes on either side, was as terrifying as a dungeon to me. But we made it on. Nothing bad happened. In fact, my fearful shaking became more like excited shaking. I was smiling when we reached Meichuan West, where we turned right and stopped to check on me. We went to turn around as the light turned red. Then after a few seconds it turned green, and a blue truck was heading our way. Then we realized our mistake: we were trying to turn around on a one way.
We scurried out of the way and got onto the side. I was sweating and panicked, I remember pretty clearly, but we were okay. And I made a mental note to always check street signs before doing something like that again. But either way, we made our way west, towards their houses, and despite learning how to drive just minutes before, I was grinning to myself the whole time.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to find a Paolo. I didn’t even need a fancy Vespa with the cute little helmet. All I needed was a little bit of courage, some help from my friends, and I was zooming around the streets of Taichung like a pro. And that, on that fateful day in January of 2017, was the first of many Lizzie McGuire moments. Ones that took me to the hills above the city, looking down on the people as if they were nothing but ants. Drives that led me to sparkling city views at night amidst clusters of farmlands and old abandoned buildings. After that point, any time I got on my scooter–even now in the final days–I felt like I could take on the world.
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