#LoveYourJourney
So, it seems like everything and everybody has moved on without you. The plan was to get your first car just a few months after school like everyone else who is your friend and colleague. Eight months down the line, everyone has bought their car but you and this situation cannot just but draw all sorts of angry and frustrating thoughts from you.
Well, you my friend are not the only one journeying down that road. Before I got my first car, I had to be the only one of my friends without one for 2 whole years into being a college student. I went to a private school, one frequented by wealthy kids. The only thing they did not have in school were personal mansions. I would see them drive all sorts of cars and watch them with contempt in my heart when they complained about how stressful owning and maintaining one was. Of course, I thought they were just being ungrateful for the rare opportunity they had. You must be thinking in your heart that I should just have made friends with other people who didn’t have cars and maybe even made a sorority out of ourselves. Well, that would almost mean having no friends at all because every Tina, Denise and Harriet had a car!
The awry feelings I had were endless. Sometimes I just felt they were rubbing the fact that I didn’t have a car in my face even though I knew that was not the case. Every morning, I had to wait for one of my numerous friends to drop me off in class and then wait till they were done to come back to the hostel even though it was not always very convenient. The distance from our hostels to the classes were quite a journey and there was no single way I was going to trek that everyday.
There was nothing for me like going quickly to the store to get something or even the very mundane act of getting up and wanting to drive myself somewhere just for the fun of it or to cool of my head. I could not even get angry at my friends for some of the wrongs they did me, both car related and not. I mean, getting angry with them would just mean that I was intentionally putting myself up for some punishment whose consequences I could not bear out.
I just spent everyday wishing for what wasn’t that I almost forgot how to enjoy myself or enjoy being around my friends. It got so bad that it took only two minutes of being with them before envy crept in. If only I knew the extra stress and cost that came with owning a car they always said.
Well, today I own my car and I have figured through several scenarios that sometimes you are better off not owning a car especially when you do not have a stable income means. What my experience with my friends taught me were the priceless virtues of tolerance, contentment and of course not hinging my happiness on material things, most of which are not very sustainable.
If you are travelling down my path, I suggest that you make a quick reverse and start enjoying this stage of your life where you are not laden with a car as a responsibility.
Love your personal journey enough to trust every single process it is taking whether fast or seemingly delayed.