Why My POS Silver Honda is the Best Car I Ever Owned

I've had my Honda for ten years. Yep, that's right. Ten big ones. A decade. The only relationships that I have currently that have existed for a longer period of time are the relationships that I have with my family and my husband (life and 14 years respectively). I bought that Honda, with the help of my parents, in the middle of my first year of law school. It was the winter of 2001. I was living on campus, kind of. It was South Campus and I had to take a bus to the main campus, where I attended classes all day and spent my time studying in the library. Then I walked back across a dark, often cold and snow filled campus, to the bus stop and took the bus home.

Having a car made things a little bit easier. I was that much more autonomous - I wasn't dependent on the bus schedules, which often weren't very dependable. In theory, they ran on time but in practice, not quite so much. That car was my third love, after my husband/family and my college because of the freedom it gave me. And boy, it's reliable. It has lived through all sorts of weather conditions from the bitter cold arctics of Syracuse and the North Country of New Hampshire to the hot, humidity of Long Island and everything in between. It has scaled mountains, but has unfortunately never crossed the desert. It has survived car and car accidents and car on telephone pole accidents. It has even survived the occasional gas tank adventure (I was attempting to get gas last weekend and learned that the gas tank would not open so I was without a car for a day or so).

I know that soon, my car and I will have to part. The car is showing signs of dying. It doesn't always start in cold weather now and sometimes, the car forgets that the steering wheel is in place and so the key can turn. It makes funny sounds more often than not, particularly at speeds over 65 miles per hour and often shakes in a scary manner. Things hang off of the bottom. However, when I eventually go to trade it in, I will experience something akin to separation anxiety or empty next syndrome. That car was like my first child - I took care of it because it took care of me. And I will never forget that.