I Bought a New Car After 22 Years of Driving the Old One

and it was a huge fucking deal

Gratitude, terror, relief, worry, joy, embarrassment: I spent 22 years on an emotional rollercoaster in a car that could fly off the rails at any moment. I was always grateful for the ride, but it was exhausting.

22 years ago we were all living the emotional aftermath of 9/11. That aftermath also had a financial side that a lot of people don’t remember very well. From Investopedia:

“Stock markets immediately nosedived, and almost every economic sector was economically damaged. The U.S. economy was already suffering a moderate recession following the dot-com bubble, and the terrorist attacks added further injury to the struggling business community.”

By the end of 2001 things were back to nearly normal, economically, but the short-term pain led to my long-term gain.

In October I found myself in a car dealership purchasing the cheapest car money could buy with 0% interest. Yeah, zero. A car priced under $10,000. Brand new. It was a Suzuki Swift but it had the exact same body as a Geo Metro. Yeah, I don’t know why.

At that point, my kids were 8 and 10 years old and to say I was a struggling single parent would be to understate things. This was all I could afford, and barely…