Imagine this: you wake up on the morning of your 16th birthday, and as you walk outside to catch the bus, what do you find? A brand new, 4 door Jeep.
Your mother happily hands you the keys and says “Happy Birthday!” And you ride off into the morning sunrise and pick up all of your friends along the way. (That’s legal, right?)
It all sounds perfect…
Until you realize you’ll have to wait another four to six months before you can actually drive your brand new car…
Then there’s the fact that your parents have trusted you to operate a brand new, multi-thousand dollar vehicle. I don’t know about you, but I certainly do not trust my own driving abilities enough to drive much more than a golf cart.
Honestly, I am a little envious of those kids I see who pull up to Wakeman in their new cars, music blasting even though it’s only 7 a.m., swinging their lanyards casually around their fingers.
But really? It’s a little ridiculous.
Unlike some Staples students, I’ve known since the day I turned 16 that I’ll be lucky if I get a car that’s even from this millennium. As long as it has a working radio and air conditioning, I’ll take it.
We’ve all seen the movies. Your first car is supposed to be a hunk of junk that screeches all the way up to the curb in the school parking lot. It’s a rite of passage.
Instead, I pull up to Staples and see a parking lot full of Jeeps, Mini Coopers, and even the infamous yellow Ferrari. Let me just state the obvious and say there is nothing humbling about driving a Ferrari to school.
Truthfully though, it’s unfair to blame my peers for having nice cars. Because who’s the one shelling out the dough to get their darling children the car of their dreams just days after they’ve set their Facebook statuses to “Permitted!!!!”?
Mom and Dad.
