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The Pixel Punk Diaries |
My Ghetto Car
Let me tell you about my cool car that isn't cool anymore. Girls, keep reading, because this is for everyone.
A couple years ago I sold my PT Cruiser after realizing that a new car wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. I decided I would buy the car that I always wanted in college but I couldn't afford. So I bought a beautiful '95 Honda Civic SI hatchback. It was fast, cool, inexpensive, and it had great gas mileage.
What could be better? You can spend your fortune on an Escalade or an H2, but this Civic is all I need. I bought some tough rims and had it lowered an inch to give it a more aggressive stance. That was the last time my car looked cool.
"Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, and don't let anyone be reckless with yours." This is a series of unfortunate events that made my car ghetto:
- Bumper Cars - After a fun dinner with friends at a restaurant, I hopped in my car and started to back out of my parking space. I heard a terrible scrape coming from the back of my car, like a giant robot gasping for air. I walked back to find that someone had smashed my rear fender into the wheel and didn't bother to tell me. I had to jack up my car and put on a skinny spare tire just to get rolling again.
Although four strangers gave me four dents in the first year of owning the car, this was the biggest and most frustrating. Some banging around with a hammer eventually gave me enough room to put the full-sized rim back on the car. But that dented fender chirps on the tire if I have more than two people riding with me. How embarrassing is that?
- Nice Stereo - I had an expensive car stereo stolen from my car back in college. I spent an entire summer in high school earning the money for that Rockford Fosgate system, then one Saturday afternoon a guy took it away in less than five minutes. All that work--GONE!
Since then, I've never upgraded my sound system because I learned that if I have something that other people want, they will probably take it from me. But I inherited a nice CD player when I bought this Civic. I was tempted to install the stock radio to save myself the hassle of getting it stolen, but what are the chances of getting robbed again?
Well, they got me. And in doing so, they destroyed my dashboard, making it impossible to adjust the temperature. But luckily it's locked on high AC, and because I live in Phoenix, this works out pretty well. Imagine how miserable life would be if it was locked on high heat. But honestly, I was happy they took the stereo and left the rest of the car. I might add that the hole in my dashboard has made a handy shelf for books and my lunchbox.
- Eggcellent - So last week my car was assaulted in a drive-by egging on prom night. You've got to be kidding me. I got egged? So I tried to scrub off the drips, but it was too late. The egg was baked and had turn hard--the paint cracled underneath. But the good news is that they egged the panel that has the huge dent (see number 1). If there was any place someone could egg my car and not make me mad, it was there. It's pretty cool when you think about it.
So I took my car to the repair shop to see what it would cost to make my car look like it did when I first bought it. After an afternoon of suspense, the shop guy handed me a sheet of paper. I skimmed the page until I found the tally of damage: $3,775. What? I only paid $5,000 for the whole flippin car! And that's price doesn't include replacing the stereo. That money is coming out of my my pocket because of what others have done to me. How messed up is that?
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Everyday I get in my ghetto car, and I am thankful that all this damage was done just to my car, and not to my heart. You can fix a broken car, but is hard to fix a broken heart. We don't show others our brokenness very often, and we drive around in life acting like it's not real. Then we put ourselves in the exact places where we were hurt before.
"Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, and don't let anyone be reckless with yours." That's my new favorite quote.
It's the end of a school year, and teenagers have the next couple months to step away from the dramas of the high school. Really think about your friends, and how you treat one another. It is sad to say, but many teenagers seek popularity, and in doing so, they get locked in groups of friends who do nothing but tear one another down. The attention and devotion they give you is limited and conditional. Do your friends truly care about you? Sometimes you just have to find new friends.
Then there are the dating relationships. When you date someone, you are letting them closer to your heart than you know. You must always be smart...continually guarding your heart. Don't become so drunk on the romance of a relationship that you allow someone to hurt you or manipulate you. Listen now, or learn later.
Who knows? Maybe if people treat each other better now, we'll all be better off. Our world will become a friendlier place because good people have been good to other people's hearts. It will be a magical place where we love each other and don't destroy each other's cars.
UPDATE: Since this article was originally published, my ghetto car was stolen, never to be seen again. Looking back, I am thankful I didn't pay to have it fixed up before it was stolen. It is ironic that the the week it was stolen the "cold A/C" had warmed up to a "persistant hair dryer." So on the day that it dissappeared, I prayed that the thief would not pass out of heat exhaustion and hurt somebody.
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Matt Smith is the Director of Internet Ministries for Life Teen, an international Catholic youth ministry based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the creative force behind Life Teen's cluster of websites that receive nearly 2 million visits a year. Since staring on MTV's "Real World" and MTV's "Road Rules Challenge", Matt has traveled the country speaking at colleges, universities, schools, and Catholic parishes.
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