Where does aggression on the road come from? Emotions determine what kind of driver you are. Episode 95

Monika Rachtan
I would like to invite you to listen to the First Patient programme. Hi, Monika. I would like to welcome you very warmly to another episode of the After First Patient programme. In my programme we talk about different forms of therapy, and today we will consider whether driving a car can be a form of coping. And that's what I'll be talking about today with Anna Lucińska. Hi, a very warm welcome to you.

Anna Lucińska
Good morning.

Monika Rachtan
Ania is a presenter and actress, but also a huge car enthusiast.

Anna Lucińska
A car enthusiast, I would even say a huge one. This came from my dad as a child, because my dad's passion is his hobby. Repairing cars in general cars is one, and repairing them is another. So I as such a little girl there running around with these spanners in the garage, feeding them into the pit, my dad going there, tapping, tapping, tapping, so I just these petrol lubricants and so on already in my blood. I just love motoring and I've also been running the channel for almost five years now. There's about to be an automotive one where I test cars and a woman.

Monika Rachtan
Well, are we women being discriminated against in this, well, seemingly masculine automotive world?

Anna Lucińska
So that's what I think about motoring in general, there's these established patterns that are fortunately changing. As you mentioned, it's a world that's kind of tied up tightly, I mean it's a world that's tied up very tightly with men, but it's changing, because women like me and others are coming in and they want to change the world a bit. Not by force, absolutely not, because it's not like I'm going to wrestle with men here, that I have to play first fiddle here. Absolutely not in motoring, because I think that's also a guy's job. Absolutely yes. And we women can complement it nicely or be such a nice addition.

Monika Rachtan
Such sparks, right?

Anna Lucińska
Yes. What's more, I know that probably not many people may realise this, but there have actually always been women in motoring. For example, there was a lady called Berta Benz.

Monika Rachtan
What was Berta doing?

Anna Lucińska
The wife of Karl Bert, i.e. the gentleman who invented the automobile in 1886 and she was the first person in the world to ride in this car in 1888.

Monika Rachtan
That is, we were simply equal to men. We absolutely cannot be discriminated against. When you're running a YouTuber channel where you test cars, the first time you have contact with the people who entrust you with the car, you feel that you know they're giving it to a woman, that all these channels are run by men, but here they're giving the car to a woman. Do you ever feel like they are explaining something to you? Or you know you have this feeling that they would give it to a guy. Just get in and drive, and they try to help the woman a bit.

Anna Lucińska
Maybe in the beginning that was the case when I started to pick up so-called test cars, or test cars. In automotive jargon, maybe it was like that at the very beginning, but now it's not. Now it's the case that I get the keys, I just get a collection like this in a PDF by email, where all the most important functions of that car and parameters are written down. But I have this history with the first car I picked up for testing, and the first car I recorded was a Lamborghini. So high end, high end and I had this thing. Okay, so I got in the car and I fired it up and I sat behind the wheel, I will say I had a bit of a scare. Well, because first of all it's not my car, secondly in general how is it all going to work out, is it going to be fun or not. How much does this car cost? What happens if I don't know something. The rim will scratch somewhere, because you have to be careful. Test cars are test cars, but you also have to be respectful and careful because you can be held liable.

Monika Rachtan
Did you talk about this stress or stress in general? Because the job of a presenter, the job of a youtuber, the job of an actress as well, is to be exposed to situations like this all the time. You're a public figure, you have to say a line, you have to learn something. Do you still have any? Also do you get stressed by this job? People in the limelight?

Anna Lucińska
Absolutely yes. I always get stressed before public speaking and I always I mean I think it's natural. And I don't think I know a person who doesn't. I don't get nervous, and when I talk to actors who are older, for example Andrzej Grabowski, who's in a TV series with us now, and I say Andrzej, just tell me what to do here so I don't get so nervous, because there are days where I normally go on set, we play and there's just the camera, the action and it's all laid back. And sometimes it's like, it depends, you never know what time it's going to be, what day it's going to be, because there's no rule, absolutely. And all of a sudden the camera goes off, the red light goes on and there's some kind of block inside. It's horrible. I can't cope with it.

Monika Rachtan
I didn't want to ask how to cope anymore.

Anna Lucińska
Of course, there are methods where, for example, I have to give public speeches or conduct conferences, where I also get stressed, but I believe that this stress is positive, because it makes you more motivated. Because if I'm not so stressed out or if I don't care, then you're less prepared and you're less committed, but it makes you want to perform well and be professional. So there are some breathing techniques that we just have to stand somewhere, in silence and stillness. Just taking a few of those deep breaths is always the best thing for me.

Monika Rachtan
And what did Mr Andrew say to you? Is he stressed too, or not?

Anna Lucińska
He said yes child, if you had been filming a certain series for so many years, I don't want to mention it here as well as the ones we all know. They shot probably 20 or 22 seasons and he said it's getting so into the habit, into the blood, that you just forget about those cameras. And that's very cool, because you're the most natural then. How you stop caring about still like you stop caring about how you look, how you act, how you stop, like.

Anna Lucińska
You stop paying attention to it, yes.

Monika Rachtan
Exactly Do you feel this difference at all between working with actors? Andrzej Grabowski This is a legend though and here. Wow, I envy you very much. And on the other hand, when you stand on stage and, for example, you're leading some conference, let's say about things you don't know about, because I'm like that sometimes, I'm leading a conference about something I don't grasp at all. And I get very stressed then. Where is it more difficult? On stage just as a presenter, an announcer or as an actress with such well-known characters?

Anna Lucińska
It's a difficult question, but also a very good question, because I've never really thought about it. But so now I'm quickly trying to answer it for myself, and to be honest I'm more stressed about acting, because I have to act, because I have to be someone else, because I have to get into character. And when running a conference or an event I can be myself, which means I can make jokes. Depending on the situation, of course, but I can be myself. And I also love these human interactions, so you can build on that in a different way than playing. Because in a play you have a text that you have to stick to more or less depending on the production, but still you have to be in the role. And here on stage I can just do whatever I want and it makes it more easy for me And I feel more natural in that.

Monika Rachtan
And have you ever had that work-related stress, the stress of being an actress, a presenter, a youtuber, a tester, that you felt it was getting in too much for you though, that you know your mental health?

Anna Lucińska
Yes, repeatedly. Well, there is something like that. It's just that from the very beginning, when I decided to go down this path of acting, it all started with castings actually, castings are not the nicest at all.

Monika Rachtan
Situation.

Anna Lucińska
Situation. Situations. Tasks. Probably more like tasks, because you're being judged all the time by a bunch of people watching and looking at how you did. And how did you play it? And was it good or bad? And you can even play super, but you don't fit into a given director's vision. And you don't know that, because no one comes to you with feedback and no one tells you that you played super, but we're going to decide on another lady after all. And it's like, all the time we're dealing with this stress, with this evaluation, somewhere. And it's not easy, especially when you're younger. And so at the beginning. When I started going to castings when I was 17, my self-esteem wasn't fully built up yet. I'm only honestly just thinking I'm 39 now, okay, that wasn't there. I don't know when it passed. I really don't know. It's when I was 35 that it's only somewhere in there that my self-esteem has built up like that and it really is, it's good.

Monika Rachtan
In this world of media, actresses, presenters, is it this kind of insecurity, this lowered self-esteem that you often observe in your female colleagues?

Anna Lucińska
Yes, yes, it's just that it's also a bit like we hide it, we don't want to show it. I'm also often told, for example, that you're so confident and everything. I am now, but I used to cover it up with this confidence, I used to play a bit, and inside I was so not really confident.

Monika Rachtan
But does this motoring thing make you so you know? Gives you that you're such a cool gal?

Anna Lucińska
You know how cool it is when a guy comes up to you. I had one at an airport somewhere recently and he says Jesus, I'm watching you, airports are great, these cars in general, but you've got a fury. Some other guy there who's really like that. High position somewhere in the company. Such a serious gentleman says Jesus, how you talk about these cars, what kind of cars he drives. Girl, wow! Thank you very much. Well there is something. Well there is this ego. Somewhere it went up a little bit, although after these almost four years I also have this perception that ultimately these are just cars that have four wheels, a steering wheel and are supposed to get you from point A to point B.

Monika Rachtan
But see, I think that actually the motorbike, when you decided to turn that passion from your childhood into a professional success, it gave you that confidence. Because like you said, it wasn't until you turned 35 that that confidence came and I think, you know, I think we all have something that we can find within ourselves that allows it to blossom so beautifully. It's just important to look for it and to find it as early as possible, to become such a strong grandmother, to stand strong on her feet.

Anna Lucińska
Well, I have one, I have a maxim that has been ringing very strongly in my head lately, the one that was carved on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Know thyself. And that's where it all starts. The moment we take a look, we don't look outside and get compliments from others, but we look inside and see what we women or men are like, then everything changes, because then we start to notice our pluses, strengths, less strong points too, but we get to know ourselves, and that is the most important thing, because it simply gives us much more self-confidence than if we hear some praise from the outside.

Monika Rachtan
I'm going to ask you a bit more about the job of a youtuber, because a lot of people think it's such a rose-tinted job, and it's not. And you know that. I know that, that it's not just getting a supercar, keys and so on, that it's a lot of work. What was it like for you in general in the beginning, because that's how you had the idea, you were recognisable. You knew you were going to do a programme about something cool, something that interested you. But still, will it be successful? Will the clicks happen? Will the likes come through? How was it for me?

Anna Lucińska
It kind of came about by accident because I started the channel when there was a pandemic and it kind of worked out that I love travelling and it's one of my biggest passions in general. I travel somewhere all the time, that's mine. Without travelling in general I would really wither away and that's my battery recharge. And it was just that I wanted to go somewhere. But there was a pandemic, everything was closed down and so on, so you couldn't fly, so I thought I'd go somewhere by car, so I thought maybe I'd contact a car brand that wanted to collaborate and give me a car for a video. And that was almost five years ago. Where Instagram still, because I started on Instagram wasn't as developed as it is now. And I got this car, I made some video there. Well, and I got a call back from another automotive brand. Would you like a car from us for a test drive? I said, 'Oh, man, it's so easy.

Monika Rachtan
Wow!

Anna Lucińska
And that's how it started, which is totally by accident. I also started doing it out of passion, but also for fun.

Monika Rachtan
Because it's fun.

Anna Lucińska
I was a bit bored.

Anna Lucińska
Well, because the pandemic, all the plans were put on hold, so I said, 'gee, let's film this car, let's make something fun out of it.' At the beginning I did these acting scenes, because there was a lot of time, so on these recordings you could really get out of it in a good way and just have fun with it. And it was also done in a funny way, with such a distance. And it seems to me that it just turned into a success somewhere, because people started to notice it. And I wasn't doing it for the likes and clicks, I was doing it for myself. I was also smuggling that in. I always smuggle in some kind of historical thread or so that people learn something from watching the episode, so that it's not just a nice car, such and such, and such parameters, but so that they get something more out of it. And that's how I think it started.

Monika Rachtan
Naturally, naturally.

Anna Lucińska
Spin, because it seems to me that if you do something under the public eye, it will come out sooner or later. When you're not being natural, you're just doing something. Well maybe not hearts to the core just for the likes and clicks. And now we are actually under such a psychological point of view. There is such a thing that people detect, detect, sense. If someone is lying, because it can be beautifully packaged smiles, beautiful pictures. But if a person hears this person who is on the screen and something doesn't suit them, well they will know that it is fake.

Monika Rachtan
Would you step into those youtuber's shoes again and start recording the show again if you had to decide now?

Anna Lucińska
Of course it is. No no.

Anna Lucińska
Absolutely. It's mega fun because not only do you get super fury and I drive mega cars, but I also travel, so I've combined those two passions into one, because now automotive brands send me somewhere in different corners of the world for the launches of new, new models. And it's mega cool because, first of all, I'm, not that I'm bragging here, but I'm probably one of the first girls who was absolutely a pioneer in Polish motoring, apart from Martyna Wojciechowska. So here I bow my head. But in general now, in recent years, there have been no such girls, where brands have sent as the only representative person from Poland.

Monika Rachtan
It's again you're in this man's world of arriving alone guys and you go in.

Anna Lucińska
All in white.

Anna Lucińska
But I'll say more than that, it's very nice when I come to such presentations and the guys are delighted, they say God, finally some woman, not like these guys themselves.

Anna Lucińska
That you add a little to such a charm. I say very happy.

Monika Rachtan
Well, yes, well, yes, but the point is precisely that we women should already have said that, that we should bet on ourselves and that even if we feel good at something and it's totally attributed to guys, it's still worth trying. You're a prime example of that. And I also thought about the fact that, for example, how guys try in such women's worlds as nurses, or you who are an early childhood teacher, well that's also great courage to realise yourself in such a thing. Same here. And what do you think, do you think I'll come back to this discrimination in motoring on the road again? What are your observations? However, do guys think women drive worse, that women can't drive? I always have this image in my head when I think about it, that there's a man sitting in a car and there's someone doing something on the road incorrectly. I say oh, surely a woman is driving.

Anna Lucińska
I don't know if I should say it, but I say it myself.

Anna Lucińska
I often say this myself, because well it is Women are afraid to drive cars. I get the impression, they are really scared. I don't know why. I don't know why that is, but there's something about it. I'm not saying all of them, but there is something about women being afraid to get behind the wheel and drive. I don't know what it is. What could it be? I have to ask my female friends. I know that often people who don't drive are also afraid to drive on a regular basis. But then you know that just out of habit someone gets behind the wheel, drives with more confidence. And in Warsaw, if you come from a smaller town, if you go to Warsaw, you're terrified. Well, because somewhere, the road culture in Warsaw or in big cities is a bit different. Everyone's in a hurry, going somewhere, driving somewhere.

Monika Rachtan
I mean I think Warsaw in general is a massacre, a jungle here, my husband always says he comes to Warsaw, he drives in Warsaw and sometimes we drive in Wrocław. I say, you drive in Warsaw? Well, you know, somehow I forgot. I forgot, but it's actually the case that women have some kind of greater fear of the car. They still have that. They meet this judgement that a woman is driving. But you know what I've noticed? I don't know if you too have this feeling that women are a little less polite on the road. I mean they thank you less often when someone lets them in, less often. They also often wave at other road users in general. Do you get this impression too, or do you?

Anna Lucińska
But you know what, it also seems to me that it's just related to the fact that if guys are thinking and saying and you're probably a woman behind the wheel, well, if you're behaving, you'd be angry too.

Monika Rachtan
Bad? Well, of course.

Anna Lucińska
And I'll say I've learnt a bit, because I used to be so much more nervous too, let's say behind the wheel, and now I'm totally at ease. I absolutely don't get nervous if I let someone go. I have no problem with it, I really absolutely can. I can fit a camera. You can check, because first of all I found that it makes absolutely no sense that if you argue with someone then you take over that person's energy and someone shouts at you. I say why? Man, what's the point and you make it anyway. Sometimes people think that if they go faster 3 cars will get around faster.

Monika Rachtan
And still later we all meet on that red.

Anna Lucińska
Really? And besides that, I also think that sometimes when you have a red wave so-called, that is another red light you stop and you're in a hurry, I say this is how it's supposed to be, because at first I'm nervous that I'm supposed to be somewhere, I don't know, for some hour appointment, because I don't like to be late. But when a situation like that happens, first of all it's out of my control. Secondly, nothing will happen because I can be late for a while, I can let you know beforehand, And if it happens like that, maybe there is a reason for it and it's better to work through it and not get upset, stressed, because stress doesn't help anybody.

Monika Rachtan
That's right. We are on the agenda. Firstly the patient, where we talk a lot about mental health. And here a lot of guests were very different who talked about it. It turned out that this mental health can depend on social media, on our work, on various co-morbidities, but it can also depend on the fact that we drive a car to work every day, for example, and we are constantly upset. If I walk into work upset after I've been driving, I automatically treat everyone in a certain way, which probably won't be very nice or very pleasant. And can driving, this commute to work also be such a time of just sensing that some cool podcast, cool music, podcast, podcast, podcast, first patient, I'm leaving 10 minutes early so that I can get there in a relaxed way and so that I'm not stressing at all and waving my hands at these people.

Anna Lucińska
I'm definitely of the opinion that you said to treat this car ride, i.e. commuting to work, coming home, as a meditation of sorts, that is, or to listen to cool music. If you like the radio, you can listen to the radio. I don't. Somehow I definitely prefer to listen to podcasts and either some special music that relaxes me, so that I don't get wound up somewhere. I don't know, maybe it energises some people.

Anna Lucińska
And it makes a person wake up. I definitely prefer to just calm down, because I can actually see how it settles me. So that I'm just more at peace. Authentically. I really recommend it to everyone, because it's better to be calm behind the wheel than to be nervous and then carry that over into the day. Pointless.

Monika Rachtan
But there is also such portability. Sometimes you probably associate a picture like this, that there are two men standing in two different lanes, a red light in front of them and they're waving at each other there. Eventually one grabs the door handle, opens it, gets out, starts shouting at the other guy. Have you ever seen such a situation live on the road?

Anna Lucińska
But it's more that something happened in between.

Monika Rachtan
Nimi that it was wrong at all, that it didn't, that they collided or something like that. Only one made a mistake, He got pulled over. Or something like that.

Anna Lucińska
Well, yes, that's many times. I'm surprised then. First of all, it's dangerous to the max, because you never know what such a person will do. Is he or she impulsive enough to come up and really hurt you? I always need a closed door.

Monika Rachtan
Always.

Anna Lucińska
But it's for safety reasons in general. Whereas I don't understand it, but I see that guys have a huge problem with aggression behind the wheel. A huge one, and I have a few friends that I drive with sometimes and I'm shocked.

Monika Rachtan
That they are so impulsive.

Anna Lucińska
Just as someone tells me, so and so repeatedly and I ask but then why do you have that? This now? What is nothing. I used to just be impulsive. I genuinely don't know what it's about. Maybe it's about character? Maybe it's about some frustration? I have no idea, but guys are very aggressive. You know what.

Monika Rachtan
Maybe.

Anna Lucińska
Behind the wheel.

Monika Rachtan
Could we use a bit more sport? I don't know. We went to the court. Get fit or go swimming in the pool. That would let them get all those emotions out of their system. Because see, we live in stressful times. Hard work, as if all the time there's this pressure to make money, to be a man, to look after the home, some argument with the wife. You know, children and women.

Anna Lucińska
Also, in fact, pressure all the time. Here to drive the children to kindergarten, here. I am absolutely not depreciating what you are saying.

Monika Rachtan
But sometimes a girl will just scream, cry or throw herself.

Anna Lucińska
It's also different, Well, because we hide these emotions, we also don't want to show that we're somehow weak here, And now, in these times, well, women in general are swapping these roles.

Monika Rachtan
Yes, I had Natalia Przybysz here recently. She talked about how she throws cups when she gets pissed off, that she has days like that, that she just can't stand it anymore, and she says that then she'll take a pot and throw it away. It's relaxing, it's like this first crackle of the pot learning and then the pieces falling apart, that she then just calms herself down like that. I mean, you know, because I'm wondering just trying to answer the question of why guys are more aggressive than women. And I'm thinking.

Anna Lucińska
That it is biology.

Monika Rachtan
I guess that's what you think?

Anna Lucińska
Yes, that's biology. Well, because see, it was the guy who had to go out one day and kill that buffalo or some elephant or buffalo, And the woman was the one who guarded that home fire. So we by nature are more calm and so settled and more peaceful. And men, however, have these hormones and bigger hormones and stronger hormones than we do. I think so. I'm not a doctor, but it's just from observation and somewhere in our biology that it's the guy who is, the one who goes there, has to fight and so on. So they also produce these hormones that have to have an outlet somewhere. And if, as you say, the guy doesn't exercise, there's nowhere for that stress to just sweat it out or shout it out or beat someone up on a mat, somewhere.

Monika Rachtan
It beats being on the street.

Anna Lucińska
Well, I think so.

Monika Rachtan
So my appeal to all men is that if you're feeling the pressure and you just can't deal with your emotions on the road, then maybe some sport, maybe some running, something like that will help. Or just lock yourselves in a room and shout to yourselves, but not on the road at other people, because that.

Anna Lucińska
A lot of guys I know said that, for example, they had trouble venting those emotions and, for example, going to the pool or to boxing or to some Eastern martial arts. It helped them a lot. They said it was a different quality of life altogether.

Monika Rachtan
You drive around Europe, you drive around the world. Tell me, how is the culture on the roads in other countries? Is it actually the worst in Poland?

Anna Lucińska
No, I'm not saying it's the worst. No, I didn't say that. What I am saying is that in these big cities I feel that it simply counts. The rule of who's bigger gets priority and who's more clever gets first. But I lived in the States, in Los Angeles for almost five years, and it's interesting on the road there. And that's because we have different nationalities there, just different cultures. So people come from all over the world and each culture drives differently. And for example, the principle was that, and I absolutely don't want to be racist, I'm not talking about that at all. But every country has different, different driving cultures. And Asians drove very slowly. When it rained, you knew straight away that aha, it was an Asian. Authentically right away that an Asian woman.

Speaker 4
And it doesn't matter if it's a woman or a man.

Anna Lucińska
So each culture has its own. I don't know. People more from the south are more so laid back, and here Cold Elbow, here music plays and so on. No stress, no rush. And it seems to me that Europeans just go here this Scandinavia in general. The higher up, which is Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark in general, all these Scandinavian countries drive very carefully, very cautiously, slowly, but that's also because they stick to the rules more. But they've got it in their blood, they've always driven and it's also to do with saving money.

Monika Rachtan
Exactly, but the fines there are also very high, so it doesn't pay to drive fast and in a more nonchalant way there. And again, the English drive against the tide.

Anna Lucińska
Not everyone is so on the wrong side of the direction of travel, I'm really not surprised.

Monika Rachtan
And have you been on the roads of England at all, driving against traffic?

Anna Lucińska
I've been driving and I've just had one recently. I've been to the launch, the premiere. It was just a visit to McLaren HQ and it's fun walking around, watching it all. Mega interesting. And so they say listen, well they're also going to be driving the McLaren Arthur model today. The Arthur model is called that and you're going to be driving. And I thought we were going to drive on the track. We'll normally go out on the road, on the road. And this kind of boy asks me, because we ride in pairs. Listen, you're going to ride with me, Only like you can ride first, because I've never ridden on the left side before, and you've probably already had experience, so I say mega. I say forget it's on the left, so McLaren says gosh, after all the low, some of these jumps, some of these wounds, I don't know how it was. It was very good, I even managed, surprisingly I was surprised it went so well, but I was a bit scared. However, you know such a car. So you're driving. Yes, but after that it was easy.

Monika Rachtan
Okay, so once again the girls are on top. We did it and that's cool. And tell me, what would you say to young girls who are thinking about whether or not to do a driving licence after all, and they have this huge, huge fear of getting in with the car, getting into the car. I can still imagine you getting in. The instructor is usually a guy, sometimes there are girls, but well that's rare. How do you even get over that fear to get in the car that first time?

Anna Lucińska
First of all, absolutely yes. I encourage all ladies to get a driving licence because it's great. It's a bit about freedom. I wanted to do my driving licence from the very beginning, I just turned 18, immediately popped on a course and started driving. And what can definitely help is just practice. So it's like always with everything with sports. If you want to get into a good university somewhere, you have to practice, you have to train, you have to study. Same here. So the best way is just to practice, which means either buying more rides if we have a problem and we're just scared, because that's the best option, or we can ask someone to ride with us and to see, because that's also, against the odds, a lot of learning, which means we imitate. I, because I've always driven with my parents, who have always had, since I was born, a driving licence, but I've always been driven and that's also what made me learn to drive quicker, because just somewhere, involuntarily, unconsciously you'd watch those parents change gears.

Anna Lucińska
Although now I have an automatic. But okay, what are the traffic rules, what are the signs? So I already knew that before. So it's great to watch or ride with friends and just ask And how do you do it? And how do you? And why is that, and what are the regulations? But first of all practice and you can't be afraid, because it's great. And if someone is afraid, I used to learn to dive and I had a huge problem with it, because in the beginning I learned in the pool those first attempts and I had to submerge myself. And to sort of trust that breathing apparatus. And I wasn't able to, I just surfaced. I said I burst into tears, of course, and it's a good thing I had a female instructor, because she calmed me down a lot and said Listen, this is the first time calmly, no one's beating you here, no one's judging you calmly so you'll have it in your own time. So she asks Do you ride a bike? And I say Well yes, and how did you learn? Do you remember what it was like?

Anna Lucińska
I say Well, yes, a little bit, but you had to ride a few times. Someone held you back with that stick, then let you go and you had to trust yourself. The same with driving a car. It doesn't happen straight away. You have to train, but even that is not easy at the beginning. But you are able to teach it all as we go along. Well no one tells us at the very beginning that you have to crawl all your life, you just learn to walk naturally and it comes out as well. And I lost the thought, because I wanted to say I was scared, but I got over it with the swimming. But I dared to, because the cool tips this lady gave me were to take it easy, take it slow and do the same on the test drives. Well that's what test drives are for, to learn. Even if there's something back there honking, you can't pay attention to it at all. That's what the lessons are for, to learn.

Monika Rachtan
Well that's it, it's such a bit of a stressful situation, but still. Well, training makes perfect. Has the road champion ever had an unpleasant situation on the road? I'm thinking of a collision, an accident. Has it happened to you?

Anna Lucińska
I had one very unpleasant situation because a bus drove into me. Maybe not even that it drove into me, but there was a narrowing, there was an island, I was coming from the right, the bus was coming from the left and I know that the bus has priority, although I thought that when I was on the right it had to let me in. And then the bus driver. The driver I'm sorry, the gentleman driver was really very, very unpleasant and just on the ruddy side.

Monika Rachtan
He wanted to show you.

Anna Lucińska
Me the whole car, and I was driving a very small car at the time. And listen, I was so scared. It was horrible. The first accident it was. Gosh. I think 7 8 years ago my first accident. And it's also the case that when you have an accident with a bus or a tram, well you know there has to be a protocol. It's the same in every case, but here it's as if the driver has already finished his day's work, i.e. he's finishing his working day. So, on the one hand, as someone once said to me, I don't know if it's true, but someone once said to me that for such drivers it's a plus, because they have time off later and can go home. And I will say that this gentleman was terrible, terrible and the people who got off the bus were terrible too. They weren't. They were saying, gee, we saw what the lady here, how did all this happen, they were coming up to this driver, they were saying, like, is this your fault? He didn't want to talk to me at all, so and the police and everything took an awful long time.

Anna Lucińska
Well, and a very unpleasant situation.

Monika Rachtan
The next day I got into the car without a problem. However.

Anna Lucińska
Did I have fear? I had fear. I had fear, because it is an unpleasant situation. It's known to be stressful, somewhere we remember more, so the stress was there, but I said oh dear, well it's happened once, I hope it doesn't happen again and I'm very careful on buses.

Monika Rachtan
Me on excavators. Tell me, would you choose your job as an actress if you had to pick one actress, youtuber or presenter? That is, though, that contact with the audience. That stage is your world.

Anna Lucińska
Yes, but I wouldn't be a presenter if I hadn't been an actress before. Because acting is not that I don't want to be an actress now. Absolutely not. Just experience and acting school. Well, and improvisation in general. She taught me. It prepared me for my work as a presenter, because the moment I got the offer to work, to host a live breakfast show just with an audition. I say gosh! What is it anyway? And the first time we went live, the first broadcast and I was like a camera. The action starts three, two, one, we go live. It made me feel like a fish in water. I'm saying that's what it was all about. So that's what I had to come to, to learn, to be able to use it.

Monika Rachtan
The media world is brutal, isn't it? Very. How do you find yourself in it?

Anna Lucińska
So that I am myself and I am natural. And I've always done that. Sometimes I got punched in the nose for it. Very often, but it's hard. Like I said I'm not going to break my moral spine. I never and I have never done that. And I'm talking as if it's repeatedly gone against me somewhere. In general I think, I don't know if I should say this, but I think people who work in the media are very specific. Because you have to be. You have to have a tough skin and you have to push forward. And it's absolutely not for everyone. It's a very, very tough business. And the cool thing is. I think on the one hand now what's happening in the market is that any one of us can become a presenter or an actor on social media or on YouTube or on Instagram and can show ourselves in spite of everything. I mean in spite of whether or not they would take him on TV. Because times have changed, that I say. There are pluses and minuses, because now anyone can be a star and not quite a deserving one, so to speak.

Anna Lucińska
But the cool thing is that we all have the same opportunities, because we really do. I believe.

Monika Rachtan
And you think women have it harder in the media.

Anna Lucińska
Do they have a harder time in the media? Maybe they used to. Yes, now I think it's not that thick of a border anymore. I think it's a lot easier. Also, women can put up boundaries more. I've also started to. I've learnt to put up boundaries, because before I was completely unable to do that. I was too nice for that knife for everyone to like me. Super, super, super And that's not exactly a good thing either.

Monika Rachtan
I think we girls often put ourselves not first. We think about others, we try to please others on the road, at work, being a presenter, an actress, a regular girl, a mum, a daughter. But it's worth putting ourselves first. It's worth finding yourself both in the car and in life. And that's what Anna Lucińska and I were talking about today. Thank you very much, Anna. And thank you for your attention. This was the First Patient programme. My name is Monika Rachtan and I invite you to follow me on my social media. If you're looking for more valuable content, subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify. Monika Rachtan. You're invited.