Right after I got my IR, I was doing a commercial XC flight form MIC to MKT. I was on VFR flight following and was supposed to stay clear of clouds. Well, sure enough this one puffy cloud turned out to be somewhat higher that I thought, so there I was in actual, by myself, for the first time. Thankfully, all that training kicked in and I flew the plane (a C172) on the gauges until I emerged into the clear again. Kind of exciting, actually.