When my parents took me to the used car dealership to pick up the new car that I would primarily be driving, I was excited. I was still technically considered a "newly licensed driver", and the idea of having a car to myself was exhilarating. I mean I had to share with my dad, but he worked while I was at school, so it did not really matter.
When I drove that 2001 Ford Escape off of the lot, I had no idea the impact that it would have on myself and my friends over the next few years.
I was the first to get my license out of my group of friends, so we had just gotten accustomed to everyone getting in my car, Enrique the Escape, to go somewhere.
Enrique has been to the mall more times in the two years that I had a hold of him than most people have been in their lives. He has accompanied me to many a softball games, in many a different cities, and all the while never gave me any trouble.
I mean, there were only five seat belts, but we learned very quickly that, if you put the back seats down and have the entire back area a flat surface, then you can seat about eleven people comfortably.
He took us on a journey down a haunted road, where we all heard a big foot, we swear.
Some weekends during my junior and senior years of high school, we would all meet at my house, everyone would fit into Enrique, and we would travel out to the fields to hang out with everyone else.
I can even honestly say that people have slept in Enrique. After the previously mentioned hangout in the fields that we would attend (the ones that took place over the summer), it was just more convenient to sleep where we were.
Yes, for those of you wondering how we went to the bathroom through the night, Enrique was equipped with toilet paper, just in case.
As well, everyone that I was friends with has driven this vehicle for one reason or another. It was like a right of passage. When you started hanging out with our group, you ended up driving my car somewhere, even if it was just around a parking lot.
A lot of people have been behind the wheel of Enrique the Escape.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. One day, while going to my best friend's going away party, Enrique could simply not make it up the hill. I turned around to take him home, and he did not move from the spot I parked him in for almost two years.
Finally, when my parents told me that he was going to a junk yard and that I had to clean him out, I did not know what to feel.
There were a lot of mixed emotions. Mostly anger; I wanted to fix him and sadness when I realized that I could not do anything about it.
The battery had died, and so to get into the car, I had to manually unlock the car, because pressing the unlock button did not work.
Once I opened the driver's side door, two year's worth of memories came rushing at me.
I still had some of my pictures on my sun visor; ones of me and my friends. My little container that I collected change in was still in one of the cup holders, and I'm not going to lie: it was a small Pringle's can, because we all started throwing change in the cup holder, but we needed an actual container.
My crutches were still in the back from when I got my foot operated on. Yes, my friends and I were those people that thought it was funny to walk around WalMart on crutches, or to even get a hold of one of those electronic scooters.
Photo albums. As if all of these objects carrying so much weight were not enough, I literally found some of my photo albums that I had completely forgotten about. The ones from my junior and senior year, where my best friend and I were the managers of the high school's wrestling team, and then one random one with all sorts of pictures in it.
When it was all said and done and Enrique was emptied out, I could not help but to cry. This was my very first car, part of the squad. It took a lot for me to be alright with the fact that he was going away, and that I was never going to drive him again, I am still not completely over it.
That 2001 Ford Escape was the absolute best car in the world, no doubt in my mind. I would take a new engine for Enrique and the ability to drive him again over a brand new car any day of the week.
Enrique went everywhere with us.
