Buzz Lightyear flys in Star Cruiser 42

I never had a car in high school.

Now I’m on my second.  Star Cruiser 42 is moving on.

I got her my senior year.  A dealership in my town gives away a new car to a graduating senior every year.  Leading up t it, I told a lot of people that, of course, that I would be driving her home.  When you know there’s no chance in winning, you definitely talk it up.

The way the raffle worked, was that a name would be drawn from every school  in the area, and then all those names put in a hat.  Then, one by one, each person would be eliminated.  Long story short, I still vividly remember the moment that I won.  That wasn’t the strange part of the whole thing.

My principle handed me his phone, and told me to call my parents.  I managed to reach my incredibly disbelieving dad at work.

“You’re kidding me,” was all he said.

It turns out that he was with a client when I called.  Told him that his son just won a car.  The man replied that, man, he couldn’t even get a ride when he needed one.

When I got home, there were a ton of messages on the phone congratulating me.  My mom thought it was a joke I was playing, getting my friends to leave messages like I’d just won a brand new car.  I hadn’t even thought of that, but its a really good idea.

The next day my story was on the front page of the paper.  Soon, a commercial for the car dealership, featuring me, was on TV.

At school, people were constantly congratulating me, and it was very strange: I hadn’t actually done anything.  Then people started saying:  “Eric, I’m glad it was you that won.”  A girl made a statement to the whole class:  “If I could give away that car, it would have been to you;  you deserve it.”  Everywhere I would go, to friends houses, dentist appointments, everyone would comment about how happy they were to see it was me.

How do you respond to that?  I told my dad how strange it was, he just said to “Enjoy it while it lasted.”

Nobody deserves a brand new car.

To me, better than any car, was the response that I got.  And that’s not credit to me.  That’s credit to the people that I know, the people in my town.

My dad was with a client when I called.  Told him that his son just won a car.  The man replied that, man, he couldn’t even get a ride when he needed one.

I decided then that I’d give a ride to people when they needed it.  Whenever Star Cruiser could help.  That car was never really about me, anyway.  She was for the people that I knew, the people in my town.

What sad is not getting rid of an old car, its just a car, nothing more.  What gets me is thinking back on all the life that happened in and around her.  And that, was what was really most important anyway.

 

-The trips surfing with the boards tied through the windows to the roof.
-The failed trip to Canada
-Airport runs for people I hardly know
-Taking my friends to visit my family in Tijuana
-The successful trip to Canada
-My friend borrowed her so he could sit his GRE’s.  Which is good, because he’ll be running the world someday.
-Almost dying at midnight on a mountain pass
-Giving a lift to a friend of a friend who had just gotten kicked out of her house
-Trying to teach my sister to drive a stick
-Meeting Reliant K
-When I finally learned to drive a stick, spending half the night giving joyrides to all of those people who had said such nice things to me when I won Star Cruiser 42.