One of the top ten Marisa facts is that I'm completely obsessed with my car. A 1999 Ford Taurus lovingly dubbed "Mushu," has been unofficially my car since I've had a license. In those five years, Mushu and I have been through late-night pop runs, back-road drives, rainstorms, hailstorms, windstorms, laughter-filled road-trips, tear-filled drives, and many a jam session. All this has been done with only an AM/FM radio and no air conditioning.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm obsessed with my car. Like a firstborn baby, a girl's first car holds a special place in her heart, and Mushu is no different. Many a journey, both physical and emotional, have occurred with me behind the wheel. Equally, many a thought, some profound but most random, have occurred as well. Driving home from KU last Friday, my dorm room packed in tight around me, I had the following thoughts:
". . .How about this restaurant?"
My parents came to Lawrence to help my sister and I move out and to attend an award ceremony with me. After, we wanted to go to a restaurant to celebrate. This would have been fine on any other night of the year, but it seemed that every family with a KU graduate had the same idea as my parents. After asking at two different establishments (and finding the wait to be between 45 minutes to an hour at both), my parents and I finally settled on Applebee's in nearby Ottawa.
"Up or down?"
As I mentioned before, Mushu, as beautiful as he is, doesn't have air conditioning. This means that if I want to be cooled at all during my travels, I have to roll down the windows and enact my 65/4 air conditioning system (all 4 windows down at 65 miles an hour). The problem with this is that at 65-75 miles an hour, the air moves pretty quick, making for an unfortunate music and hair experience for all in the vehicle. This makes the eternal question on hot days being "Windows up or down?"
"Yassssss, love this song!!!"
I have both the bass and the treble maxed out in my car, making its standard speaker system sound a little above average. I love listening to music in my car, and the radio stations were playing all my favorites while I was driving home. Ed Sheeran, Def Leppard, Beyoncé, Chainsmokers, and more were pouring out of my speakers, and I had no choice but to belt everything out at the top of my lungs. It was quite freeing.
"Wow, it's already over."
About halfway home, the end-of-the-year reality hit me. I was done with my sophomore year, technically halfway done with college. The year played through my mind, my accomplishments and my failures like slides on a PowerPoint. I thought of the failed quizzes, the new friends turned life-long family, the promotions, the scholarships, the missed opportunities, the insecurities, the late-night McDonald's runs, the parties (filled with Go-Fish and Pink Lemonade, obviously), the nights-in, and every single day that I army-crawled through to make me into the person I am today. Do I feel different? Not extraordinarily so right now, but I know college years like this one will shape me into my amazing future self. Although, I know I will still love my ever-dependable 1999 Ford Taurus that helped me travel all these years.
