When I was a little girl growing up, I went to a fancy Catholic school where most of the kids were rich and their parents drove fancy cars. All of them. My parents started out with nothing and have always been hard workers and when they were young, just to have a car that ran was a luxury, let alone something foolishly expensive. So when I was a child in grade school, my parents both drove old station wagons or my Dad would sometimes drive his work truck that looks like the Beverly Hillbillies. The one below is what it looked like but way nicer. My Dad's station was especially epic, he bought it for $350 at a garage
sale and all of the paneling on the side was peeling off like bark.
When I was young and impressionable, I was ashamed of my parents cars because the other kids would STARE when I was bring picked up or dropped off. Some would even point and laugh. It was extremely hard for me to deal with, so much so that I started asking my Dad to park a block away and I would walk.
Keep in mind, I was under 12 years old. I was insecure about what others thought and didn't have the confidence to know or realize that what my parents drove didn't matter. In fact, my parents could probably buy and sell most of the other parents but because they didn't fiance cars they didn't need, people thought I was poor. If it were me today, I wouldn't give a shit and would think my parent's cars were awesome. As a child, not so much.
When I was in school, I would DAYDREAM about having a cool car. One that I could drive anywhere and be proud of. I would one day have the coolest car in school. I just wanted something like a Jeep or a Camry. Anything that blended in. Something nobody would look twice at.
Well I got the Jeep, and the sedan, and eventually bought my first Porsche Cayenne and then a second and last year, I got my dream car, a Porsche Panamera. Here is the real picture of my car the day I bought it.
In my mind, I think it's safe to say that I probably have one of the coolest cars in school.
A funny thing happened last week. I was in a thrift store that I go into all the time enjoying some treasure hunting and suddenly on the loud speaker, a guy that could barely speak through his laughter said, "WOULD THE PERSON IN THE SILVER PORSCHE PLEASE TURN OFF YOU ALARM SYSTEM. I REPEAT, the SILVER FOUR DOOR PORSCHE".
Apparently, it was funny to them that someone in the thrift shop would be driving that car.
Everyone in the store looked around to see who it could possibly be and I found myself frozen. I kind of stood there like I didn't hear the announcement and then realized, here I was AGAIN! This time I was embarrassed because I had the coolest car in school!
I quickly got over it and went and turned off the alarm.
The whole experience just got me thinking. Now that I have been on both sides, it just doesn't matter what you drive. We are all humans, we are all insecure in ways, and nothing material will fix it. Confidence comes from within. Sure the cars are fun, but having the coolest one in school doesn't make you any cooler.
xoxo,
Rachel
