I have been an official grown-up for a little over 3 years now. I considered myself an official grown-up in December of 2007 when I graduated from The University of Alabama. I was a pretend grown-up for most of those 4.5 years. I had a job and I payed bills. I spent most of my time going to class and complaining about how unfair it was that my parents made me work and pay bills when all these other kids were just handed wads of cash and had no worries of how the payment on their cute little BMW was going to get paid. Daddy would make sure they had the cutest dresses for football games and that they always had a place on the beach for Spring Break. (I mean my Daddy had to sell our condo on the beach to buy my house in Tuscaloosa. I can't believe I was such a brat!)
I got a car when I turned 16 (1990 Geo Tracker with a rag top). It was a great car for driving around Gardendale as a teenager but it didn't handle so well on the interstate. To say I hated driving that car to college would be an understatement. I didn't exactly hide my feelings about it either. My mom got a new car for Christmas my freshmen year. I was okay with it. She needed it badly. My sister turned 16 the summer between my freshmen and sophomore years at Bama and she got a "new"car. It was a few years old but compared to my tracker it was new. I was jealous. I was angry. How could my parents give her this nice "new" car for her to drive 2 miles back and forth to school and let me drive a death trap 120 miles roundtrip from Tuscaloosa to Gardendale. It was like they didn't care at all that my little car nearly blew over if an 18 wheeler passed me on 20/59. To add insult to injury, they went to great lengths to surprise her which included a personalized airbrushed tag and giant red bow! I mean, yes I got a car when I turned 16 but it was a car my dad bad bought two years prior and it evolved into my car. There was no bow involved. {Can you imagine how bitter I was when it was happening? I mean we're talking 6 years ago!}
In my defense I really was happy for her to have a dependable vehicle in fact I'd told my parents if they were going to buy her a car to buy her something that will last through college. I just thought they'd get me something more reliable first. I've always been the selfish one. I'm not proud of it but it is a fact.
Fast Forward about six months...I'd been having trouble with the battery on my car so I took my car to AutoZone and had them test it. They told me I need a new battery. I called my dad and I thought I understood him to say if the AZ guys thinks you can make it home to bring it home and he'd get the battery. He, in fact, said to get a new battery before I come home. Well I headed home with the old battery broke down in a not-so-great part of town right at dark. My dad and brothers came to the rescue and got the car home and fixed. A few weeks later the car dies, I had to be jumped off twice on the way home from work. My dad had to come down and tow it home. My mom declared I was not driving that car back to school. I had a job waiting tables and made a little money. I knew my parents couldn't afford to buy me a car, they had just bought 2 cars in a year. They said they could help me if I made most of the payment each month. So the very next day my mom, sister, and I headed out to buy my sister a dress for something and we stopped in the Honda dealership. I just knew I wanted an accord. My roommate had one and I loved it. Then I went into the Used Car showroom and there was my future car. A 2003 Nissan Altima. It was green though and I didn't really want green but it had a price tag we couldn't walk away from. I drove it home to show my daddy and he thought it was a good deal and would be a great car for me. He wasn't wrong. I have loved it. It's made numerous roadtrips. It's the car the boys decorated at our wedding and the one we took on our honeymoon.
And as of Today
...it's paid for.
It has taken me forever but I've never been more proud. I know my parents paid a lot of it when I was in school but I wrote the check every month. It is one lesson that I am so grateful to my parents for. The value of a dollar and the fact that money doesn't grow on trees. I'm also thankful for my first car, the Tracker. I learned a lot about taking care of cars. I learned how to check the oil, transmission fluid and power steering fluid.
Being a grown-up has its ups and downs. I'm not going to lie..I'd go back to waiting tables if it meant I could still be in college whining about how I had to pay for everything. I've never been prouder to be a grown-up as I was today dropping that final payment in the mailbox.
Thanks Mom and Dad for not giving me everything I thought I needed! Can you imagine how bratty I'd turned our if you did? Ha!
Sister, it's no secret I felt that way about your 16th birthday. Looking back, you deserved that car way more than I did. (Even if you didn't know you had to check the oil for the first year you drove it!) I needed to learn that I wasn't the most important person in this family.
My little brother actually drove the Tracker when he turned 16. He eventually got a nice truck and never looked back.
