In this youth-obsessed age of instant gratification, we honor a senior citizen who demonstrated dogged determination in reaching a personal goal. She was willing to sacrifice innumerable hours, lots of money, and most of her dignity to accomplish her aim.

It might have taken her four and a half years and the South Korean equivalent of $4,200 in application fees, but 68-year-old Cha Sa-soon finally succeeded in passing the written exam for a driver’s license on her 950th attempt. She managed to get the minimum required score of 60 out of a possible 100 points.

She achieved her goal of passing her driving theory test at the Jeonbuk Driver’s License Agency in Jeonju, about 130 miles south of Seoul. It was there that she took the test almost daily since April 2005, with respites for holidays and weekends.

In addition to the application fees, Cha Sa-soon (no relation to Vidal) spent an estimated $5,000 in bus fares. Then there’s the nearly 800 hours of examination time. That’s over a month Cha spent taking (and failing) a test.

Along the way, the farmer has become a local celebrity, the subject of a documentary, a Japanese reality star, and a symbol of remarkable resolve in the face of astonishing ineptitude. But her dream of driving a small truck instead of lugging a handcart to deliver food and household items door to door fortified her tenacity.

In Cha’s first 949 attempts, she scored between 30% and 50% on her tests. On lucky number 950, though, after extensive coaching, she proved to the rest of the world that she has mastered a whopping 60% of the South Korean rules of the road.

However, Cha’s dream of motoring along the South Korean countryside hasn’t quite been realized yet. She still needs to pass the more difficult driving test before getting her license. Cha reportedly intends to seek private tutoring to help her with that challenge.

If the written test is any indication, she should be able to pass the subsequent driving test without killing more than a few dozen pedestrians.