Goodbye, little green car

I feel so stupid crying over a car. But here I am, doing it none the less. We're trading her in for one of these. The a/c went out over a year ago and the right speaker years before that. She's almost 10 years old. She's got 108,000 miles on her too.

In many ways, I won't miss her, but in many ways I will. She kept me safe during a serious rear-end collision. She listened to me sing badly to my favorite songs and kept my secrets when I cried over something or talked back to bad drivers or prayed out loud during those 4 hour trips from college to home and back again.

She's been a constant companion for nearly 8 years, taking me to high school, my first road trip, college, the GRE (with the fuel light on and a nearly empty tank), grad school, my first apartment, my first apartment with Matt, job interviews, jobs, from Florida to Georgia, and my first home. Matt still remembers the first time he drove her - when I got sick on a date and had to be taken back to school to throw up (I'm pretty sure it was a bad milkshake). She's held my books and my clothes, my music and my makeup, my groceries and my furniture.

More importantly, she's held people and experiences I love. I don't think I could name all the family, friends and acquaintances that have spent some time in her little gray seats. The serious conversations. The jokes. The many missed exits and turns and that one time I went the wrong way on the one way street.

She's never let me down, because I don't blame her for the four flat tires or the dead battery.

Now I guess I look forward to what will happen and who will sit in the new car. It'll take me to homes and jobs too. It will hold family, friends, and acquaintances. I hope someday it will hold babies. (The little green car wouldn't. Too hard to maneuver a little person and a car seat without four doors.)

So, family and friends, next time you see me I'll be happy to take you for a ride and make a new memory.