Student Cars: Friends or Foes?

Cars can come into a high schoolers life in many forms: whether it be a Christmas, birthday, "congrats you got your license gift", or a hand me down from parents or siblings. Some search for a cheap deal so they no longer have to ride the bus or with a parent.

The student parking lot is packed with cars of all makes and models. Faded shades of blue and red, dirty vehicles that haven’t been cleaned in far too long. Our cars serve as the holder for our books, homework, gym clothes and anything else that falls in.

Despite our cars being messy, many students have a strong enough bond to give their cars a name. Naming your car is a very intense process and it will stay with it for the car’s life. Someone’s car may be named after a family member, a famous person or character, or sometimes just from the look of it.

Some of the names of your classmates’ cars are:

Fergie

Daphne

Joe

Mudbone

Ruby the Suby

Cherry the Cherokee

Clint

Quincy

Owning a car results in lots of good times. When you get passed the aux cord and are ready to get your friends hyped up. When you and your group are going to an away game, the anticipation and excitement are strong enough to feel. When you are driving over to your best friend’s house to catch up and hang out. When you’re bored and the only thing that you can think to do is get in your car and drive around. These simple moments wouldn’t be possible without our cars.

Having a car isn’t always fun, though. The cars that we students have aren’t always the nicest. Sometimes that’s the way that they came, being passed down after already being used and worn, but sometimes it is our fault.

The cars in the student parking lot are filled with flaws and signs of age. In the winter, we face the issues of faulty heating and broken windshield wipers. Sometimes, your engine won’t start and you’ll just have to keep turning the key. Standing out in the cold while scraping your windows is an everyday thing when your defroster doesn’t work. It may be a pain in the moment, however, those times make the bond with your car stronger. Our loud brakes and rust show the signs of age and wear that our cars have probably been through.

Other car problems are more physical, things that were caused by an accident. Most of our cars have dents and scratches. Some may have been caused by a dink with another car, some things have been the result of other student drivers. The road conditions can result in us landing in a ditch or we can suffer the consequences of living in Iowa by hitting a deer. A pristine, brand-new car is a strange sight to see in our school.

At the end of the day, we know that our cars will be sitting, waiting for us behind the school. They may not be clean or in perfect condition, but we know that they can get the job done.

- Emma Miller