Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Another life transition: Goodbye Hyundai Elantra.


Last week my car's transmission died.  While it happened in my safety of my neighborhood, it was still a traumatic experience and it happened when I was already late getting to where I needed to go, of course.

The days after my car's jolting ride around the neighborhood were filled with conversations of, "Should we fix it?  Should we sell it?  What if something else breaks?  Is it worth it?  What would life look like with one car?"  

We got the quote back from the mechanic.  It would be $2500 to fix the transmission (i.e. replace it).  After talking to our parents and friends, we came to the conclusion to not fix it.

Last night we sold the car to our mechanic for $500.  He is planning to fix it himself and donate it to charity.

While it's potentially going to a good cause, I still feel a little sad to say goodbye.

This car has been in my life for almost 11 years.

It was there when I started my first job out of college as a middle school teacher in New Castle, DE.  It carried me up & down I-95 every day to work.  It transported lesson plans, and ESL books for my students.

It sat in my parents garage for 2 years while I lived in S. Asia.  Then it carried me around the DE/MD/PA state area as I reported to churches, family and friends what God had been doing in S. Asia.  Road trips to New York, North Carolina... it took me wherever I went.

Then, it was used by my brother while I was in S. Asia for another year.

When I returned, it carried all of my stuff (well a percentage of it anyway) from Delaware to Florida.  More road trips to north, south, east and west Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

While I'm really not attached to my car, I do feel like what has been a constant in my life is now no longer there.

Recently, I've been learning a lot about life's transitions.  Big ones.  Small ones.  How our responses to past transitions in life can affect our current day feelings towards various situations.

Life's transitions are inevitable and unavoidable.  Some transitions are not even in our control.  Our responses to them, however, are in our control.

So what is my response to selling my car?

Like other life transitions, while the event might only take an instant to happen, it takes much longer to actually process and move through.

I'm externally making the changes - learning how to share one car with Jason, making plans based on his and my schedule, and finding creative ways to save money for another car.

But internally, I'm still shocked when I walk out the front door and my car isn't there in the driveway.

1 comment:

Martin said...

It will take some time for you to be able to walk outside and replace that depression with excitement when you get a new car. Your old car took you where you needed to go all those times, and for not the transmission going it would still be driving you around. It definitely served the purpose it’s designed to do.

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