The summer between my junior and senior years of high school I can home and my uncle was standing next to a red 1999 Honda Civic. He did not give it to me, but he said I could drive it until I scraped up enough money to buy my own junker car.
Over the next 2 years I would end up putting two thousand dollars into that red car. It needed all new brakes, all new tires, a new rim, all new brake lines, and of course- considerable work after my ex-boyfriend borrowed it and crashed it into a Buick full of 80 year olds. I got stranded in Dayton and paid five hundred dollars to a shady shop after filling it full of diesel fuel at three in the morning.
This ‘gift’ is probably sounding like a piece of crap to you right now. Yes, it has cost me a small fortune, but I love the freedom that it has given me. That stupid red car allows me to work when I want to, to spontaneously spend New Year’s Eve on a road trip, to get away from my responsibilities when I need to and to meet them the rest of the time.
My uncle really did give me the best gift that anyone else has ventured to give me; the freedom to grow up on my own. I don’t need to rely on anyone else for transportation, money, or approval to go places. I can choose to live off campus and to do what I want.
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