Thread: First Lucid?

I've been reading up on lucid dreams for quite a while now, but never really tried to initiate one. Last night, I had a dream that I was driving down a dirt road by a lake, when I all of a sudden swerved and landed in the lake, the water encompassed my lungs and i remember not being able to breathe but then a click went off in my mind during the dream saying, "this is just dream! I can't really drown!" so I all of a sudden jumped out of the water, i then plugged my nose and was able to breathe ( i guess a reality check?), only to later realize something (i cant remember what) scared the living daylights out of me and i just told myself "WAKE UP ALREADY! I CANT STAND THIS" in the dream, so i woke up. I'm just trying to understand if this dream counts as lucid, and if it is, how would i go about having better control of my lucids, because i strictly remember knowing i could control my dream within the dream, but i didnt know what to do to defend myself against whatever it is that scared me, so i just panicked and purposely woke myself up. any advice on better control?