I always remember traveling by car with my parents. I liked trips where we could see castles and chateaus. I always loved that. Because I was almost like a princess. But my father had an accident and he couldn\’t drive anymore. Everyone was unhappy at home. That was mainly because my mom did not enjoy driving. She didn\’t enjoy long car rides at all. When we went on school field trips, Mom would take us in the car. Unfortunately, Mom overslept and didn\’t drive me home. I was really displeased about that and later blamed Mom for not being able to go on the school trip. But in the end, a neighbor drove me home. On the bright side, Mom had forgotten about it, though, and it was way past her bedtime.

So I guess I was tired and slept in. I don\’t think this is the only case, though. There may be a lot of parents who don\’t enjoy driving at all, or who can\’t drive for a while because of some accident. And when I finally turned 18, I was really excited to finally get my driver\’s license. What made me the happiest was that my parents gave me their old car. I couldn\’t speak and cried from happiness. But I was mostly happy because it was technically fine. But the car had a major cosmetic flaw. The car was so ugly and old that there was no point in me taking it to a repair shop or car service, and my mother told me that such things were completely useless, that I should not go anywhere, that maybe in a year I could get a new car.

Only car dealership cars, of course. Because unfortunately I don\’t have the money to buy a new car from a car dealer. Nor do I have the money to lease one. My parents also discouraged me from leasing, saying that it would be hard to pay back the lease and that I would have to pay $6,000 for the car. I absolutely could not afford that, and I didn\’t want to admit that I would be in debt for probably 20 years because I had plans to get a mortgage when I had a future partner. I ended up buying a car from a car dealer a year and a half later. A friend of my mother\’s was selling the car, so she also got a discount. My mother knew the gentleman at the car dealership, so at least that was mostly gratifying, because we got a $30,000 discount and we still had plenty of money left over in savings.