Winter break, which is supposed to be the best time of the year for college students, ended on a sour note. My 2006 Chevy Impala, the car that I had learned to drive in, had decided that it'd had enough of me and that it was done. Before we took it to the shop and detailed the numerous damages that had occurred (4000 dollars worth), I had noticed that my car was acting weird. Whenever you accelerated and turned the wheel it made this weird grinding noise, that progressed to the point where my steering wheel was as stiff as a board and I felt like I was doing gymnastics turning into work.

About a month before it got this bad, I asked my father to take a look at it because he’s typically good at dealing with these kinds of situations, however, he drove my car, said everything was fine and that my power steering belt seemed to be working okay. The problem was his hearing is not the greatest and so he probably could not hear what was going on with the vehicle. However, if I would have taken it to the shop at this time I probably could have prevented a lot of the damage that occurred. That was not the case though, the power steering fluid had leaked all over the pipes and rusted out most of them, plus the axle had completely gotten out of shape so the tires could not be aligned, and two of my tires were completely shredded. So instead of investing money into my car that they said would most likely have more issues, I traded my car in for 2500 dollars, got my mom’s old car, and she used the money to get a more kid-friendly SUV for herself.

Now after discussing the tragic events that led up to the incapacitation of my car, I will digress into the past and look at some of the unforgettable memories I had in that car. I will start chronologically on the day that I first fell in love with that car. My whole life I had been raised on Buicks and so I automatically assumed that when I picked my first vehicle, I would pick something similar to that. However, the car salesmen knew better and as soon as he pulled out the Chevy Impala I fell in love with it, even though looking back now it was kind of a lemon.

That car was a very tough trooper through the many challenges it faced. The first incident it survived was when I told a friend I would drive her home real fast so she could pick something up and then we would go back to the game. However, we waited a little too long and I drove a little too fast and I ended up fishtailing into the ditch, but there was no damage to her.

The second tragic experience was one rainy day in the fall where a deer had died and was lying in the road, I did not see the deer however and I hit it pretty hard. About three days later, I finally told somebody what had happened since the car had started smelling and learned to be a little more cautious about animals on the road.

The last and most tragic story I will tell about my car is the day I had my first accident. I was running late and the train had come and blocked traffic, furthermore, my dad had borrowed my car and ran it out of gas and hadn’t told me. So in light of all of this, I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally ran into the back of this old lady’s car. There was hardly any damage, but I still cannot drive too close to cars this day.

In conclusion, I will always remember the memories I had with that car and I hope to bond with my new car the same way. Some people may call me overly sentimental, but this was the car that I had for the past 5 years of my life. I just hope that one day, when I have kids of my own, they find and treasure a car as much as I treasured my own.