The End of an Era...

If there is one thing I am a firm believer in, it is driving cars into the ground. I drove my 1996 Dodge Neon until the air conditioning was gone, the hubcaps had all fallen off, the paint was peeling away and it required a minimum of $1000 of assorted repairs per year. The last several times I paid over $500 to fix the Neon, I emphatically stated that I was not going to put one more cent into "That Car" ever again.

Trust me, when I say that the Neon never looked so good as the day I washed it and took pictures for CraigsList. I strategically positioned the car and photos so the peeling paint and mismatched hubcaps would not show. The Neon had not been listed for 30 minutes and we already had 3 emails, 4 phone calls and 2 people on the way to see it. It was bought and driven out of my life within 12 hours! It wasn't until one of my friends said, "You sold the Neon???? Laura, that is like the end of an era!" that I felt sentimental about the whole thing.

I drove the Neon for more than 10 years. I was still in high school when my dad found it in the newspaper (how archaic!) and drove us to Newport Beach to look at it. Initially, it was a horrible shade of periwinkle but all I saw was the 10 disc CD changer. It was a serious upgrade from the 1988 Buick Century that Matt had passed down to me. The man we bought it from had purchased it for his daughter to commute to college. It seemed appropriate that my father would buy it for his soon-to-be college bound daughter. I remember driving it home that day feeling like the luckiest high school senior in the world!

The Neon saw me through my high school graduation, my years at Cypress College and my years at Vanderbilt University... It saw me through my first job at the St. Hedwig rectory, my second job at a chiropractor's office, my third job at a scrapbooking store, numerous internships, my job at the Miller Children's Hospital and my current job at the urgent care... It saw me through my first "real" relationship, my second "real" relationship and my dating relationship and 2 years of marriage with Corey. My Neon has seen me through teenage turmoil, college drama and adult anxiety during an uncertain economy. It kept me humble as those around me got pretty, shiny, new cars and I worked to pay off my student loans. In the last year, driving around my 15 year old Neon lost its novelty. I could no longer handle the lack of air conditioning. The peeling paint suddenly bothered me. I had to call AAA far too many times. I had to repair way too many things. Corey began to forbid me to drive it anywhere further than a 10 mile radius. I had driven it for ten years. It was time. I paid off my student loans and it truly was the end of an era... So long, Little Neon...you really did serve me well...