Story of Teenager – Thirty-Five Hundred Dollar Bills
Photo credit: flackpoint from morguefile.com
I’m sure you’ve felt like something was inevitable or that it was your destiny to accomplish it. For me it was buying that first car. It was Memorial Day in the spring of 2014. I was a Fourteen year old kid with ambition. He didn’t know where his life was headed and still doesn’t fully comprehend it. It was an early morning that day; my family and I were on the way to my cousins per traditional barbeque. I wasn’t really paying attention; probably more concerned with playing games on my phone than watching the road. My mom said “Hey Luke, look at that car!” She had no idea what she had just gotten me into.
In the back of my mind I somehow knew that was my car. It’s ironic that I didn’t even know what it was at the time. I began to research and try to figure out what it was. I remembered how it looked and found that it was most likely a 2nd generation Camaro Z28. That seemed about right given what I knew. When you hear the word Camaro what do you think of? I think sleek, fast, elegant, and powerful. From when I saw the first Transformers movie the Camaro has always been calling me.
So on our way back home we pulled over on the side of the road and walked up to the car. I remember the ratty old worn cardboard that had the guy’s number on it and the price. Luckily the sign also said “No Rust”. The next morning my dad began to text the guy. Now I literally refer to him as the guy because I never knew his name. I’m sure my dad did, but I didn’t really care, all I wanted was his car. That want blinded me in many ways. My dad and him set up a time where I could come over and get a closer look at the car the next day. So I waited impatiently just hoping that we were fast enough to buy the car before someone else did. So my family and I drove up the road a bit to his house. I stepped out of my mom’s car, saw the Camaro, and was just blown away. When I say blown away it’s not just the feeling you get when something’s cool. It’s the feeling you get when there’s something that you can make really awesome. That’s the feeling I had. The guy started it up and it was just too much to bear. That car is the loudest thing in the world. All I can say is I won’t be sneaking out anytime soon without waking the neighborhood.
The guy hopped in the car and drove it up his driveway so we could get a better look at it. So the guy opened the car all up and let us (Me, my father, and brother) take a look at it. At this point my dad sees the look in my eyes. I was buying it no matter what. So my dad starts grilling the guy with questions and he fielded them quite easily. Almost too easily. He gave me the feeling that he was a car salesman, that’s how good he was. I remember thinking my dad better not screw this up. This is when I learned a little bit more about the car. I noticed it looked very close to Bumblebee’s old form in the first Transformers and I was right. The car from the movie is very similar to mine. I have to give credit to my dad. He’s really good at being prepared. He had me save up since I was little so I’d have enough money when I was ready to buy a car. I remember all the times I was angry because he wouldn’t let me spend a lot of the money whenever someone gave me some. It was worth it. This was the time.
We were worried that someone might snatch it up so we left a deposit and went to the bank a few days later. I’d never seen so much money before; at that moment I realized I was holding my life, thirty-five hundred dollar bills, in my hands. The guy brought the car to our place and unloaded it. I gave him the money, I remember he said “Bet you’ve never seen that much money before!” I had mixed feelings in that moment. Was the car worth as much as I was paying? He unloaded it and my dad started it up. I heard that engine and it gave me an indescribable feeling of excitement. That doubt disappeared.
You may be questioning why I didn’t start it up at this point. Truth be told I was scared I’d break something. Coupled with the fact I had another two years before driving, so I wasn’t really ready to take the wheel. A few weeks later my dad let me start it up, and I really failed. He was kind of mad, but taught me how to start it correctly. I spent that summer slowly fixing it up and buying parts for it. I learned a lot about muscle cars now that I had one to work on. I still have to finish the car, right now it’s buried under a couple feet of snow. It’s going to take even more money to get it on the road. There was a lot of responsibility I was looking past because it was a really cool car.
I’m pretty sure that I made the right choice, but I don’t know yet. I really haven’t been able to spend a lot of money on myself because of the car. I wouldn’t have been able to fund the car if it hadn’t been for my YouTube channel. To put it gently I bought a fixer-upper. There are many pros though. For example, I can make the car exactly the way I want it. My plan is to give it a Bumblebee paint job. It will be yellow with black racing stripes and Z28 decals. It’s going to be amazing.
To flip the coin, it’s not only changed my life financially, it’s been something that made it so much easier to talk to people and make new friends. The car has strengthened my relationship with my dad and brother and made me closer to them as we work on it. It’s been very positive. Not to mention, it’s a chick magnet.
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