At the ripe age of 16, a girl got her license, but with what car was she going to drive? Of course, the only option for this magical moment was a 2013 orange Suzuki.
There are no emotions to describe the day I shoveled that little car out from under the snow with flat tires, a dead battery, and frozen brakes. With the little knowledge on how to drive a standard car, I had no clue what adventures awaited me.
While this precious car and I have had our good times, I’ve realized it has a bit of an attitude toward the cold. My first year of owning the car was not an easy run. I noticed its first bit of sass when the tire kept going flat in the winter time. There is no feeling quite like the one you get when you walk out the door in the morning to a flat tire, every day, for two months. Even after the school day, I’d always get the best feeling knowing that I had an air compressor in the trunk of my car for when the tire was flat. This was just the beginning.
If this car has taught me anything, it’s that only real well built vehicles can endure what has happened to this car. There was a peaceful break, but then all of a sudden I drive home from work and my tire is dragging. The only logical thing to do is pull into a parking lot to call my dear old dad. From the knowledge I obtained, “it was just ice in the rim and I should just keep driving, it’ll break off.” No sooner do I pull forward five feet and the tire flies off. In tears I call my dad again. It’s the traumatic things in life that humble you the most, but life still goes on and I didn’t get a new car that day.
The next best thing happened. Under circumstances I do not wish to explain, a goose rolled up into my fender making that one of the top five moments in my car. The best part about the story was that it was one of the geese I owned.
If any of the previous events have made you want to hurl, I’d recommend turning around now and never looking back. One morning (out of the many that I spent waking up late) I was driving my car to school and noticed at the first stop sign that regardless of stepping on the brake, there was no stopping. Thank goodness the car is a standard so I could downshift, NOPE! I just stepped on the brakes harder until there were no more rolling. After, what I remember being a vigorous day, I came out to the parking lot and noticed a black car piece. I didn’t give it any thought and drove my car to work. It wasn’t until about a day later I informed my dad about the brakes and when he looked under the car, he was shook. Absolutely nothing was stopping that car, so how miraculous was it that I drove for two days with no brakes.
As if the exterior of my car wasn’t bad enough, let’s talk about the interior. I brought a stray cat home one day from my job and as I was taking it home, it decided to soil the fabric under my passenger side seat. That’s right, folks, the cat peed under my seat and It only took three months to get the smell out. How about that?
There are many tiny details about my car that have made it my car. Such as the one side of my car having hub caps and the other doesn’t, or the mismatch rearview mirrors, and how about that front end of the car. Previously owned by my mom, the car survived two deer and two raccoons.
Now that you have a good chunk of the history with my car, I want to share the good that has come from it. Every good day I’ve had when driving my car, I’ve left a foot print on the ceiling. There’s only about five foot prints on the ceiling. Not to mention, that car has lasted me almost two years and is going on 191,000 miles. While this story makes me seem like a bad driver, remember the first few things that happened to me were out of my control.
With every story about a car, there is also an end. For me and my car, there are only two days left. I used to wish every day for a different car, but as time went on, I learned how to respect my car. I learned how to love driving a standard and how even in the smallest spaces, she could fit. The best thing about my car is that it actually did get better to drive after I stopped talking bad about it.
As our journey ends, it saddens me to let her go. To clean her up and store her in a corner to be left all alone, it’s not enough justice for a car like her. A car who lived its life being crazy and care free with a whole lot of sass. This car is the end of an era for both me and the car. My right of passage car. Even as I get a new car that drives a lot better, I will never forget the memories that we shared together, even at the worst of times.
