When I first started driving my dad was very firm in the fact that if you take care of your car, your car will take care of you.  This is so true; in the last 11 years I have driven four cars, and all were/are very good to me.

In November of 2011 I started the process of buying my first new vehicle. So with my father’s guidance and a lot of research I decided upon a Subaru, they are affordable, continually perform well past 200,000 miles, have all wheel drive, which would be important during the winter months, and their Kelley Blue Book and Consumer Report ratings were off the charts.  So I worked out a loan and what I would pay out of pocket, filled out the paper work, shook the dealer’s hand and walked away feeling pretty good, minus the intense feeling that I needed to wash my hand.

A month later, just in time for Christmas I picked up my brand new 2012 Subaru Impreza. It had 8 miles on it. I had never had a car with less than 100,000 miles before. Needless to say everything was perfect. The one thing that took some getting use to however, was not jumping to conclusions every time I heard something a smidge out of the ordinary. I was so conditioned from my previous “rides,” that everything was going to cost me days in the shop and a couple hundred dollars. With my new car this was not the case as I was assured by my father…and the service department at the dealership…I trust my dad, I was just leaning towards being cautious.

Everything with the Subie has been great, I just had my 25,000 mile check up and all was well. 

Then last week happened. It got really, really, cold, and I mean it went from mid 60s to about 35 overnight. Even I have to admit that, that’s cold. I get in my car and this little orange light pops up on my dash. So I immediately pull out the owner’s manual and begin my search as to what the problem is, and I discover that this light’s purpose is to tell me that my tire pressure has dropped to an un-pleasurable level. I grab my pressure gauge and check the tires. They’re a little low, but not by much, maybe my car is just having one of those extra sensitive days.  So I head to the gas station and put a little love into my tires.  But that unholy orange light would not go off, I drove and drove and drove, and nothing. Normally I would schedule an appointment at the dealership to have this sorted out immediately, but last week was exceptionally busy. After about 5 days and 200 some miles that little light went off. Without warning. I don’t even know if I noticed it right away. This freaked me out more. I called the dealership immediately to find out if this meant that my car was going to explode and if I should bring it in. They told me it was nothing to worry about that sometimes when we have extreme weather change it can cause the sensor to trip, but I would only need to get the sensor changed if it became a continual issue.  I hung up the phone relieved. 

Though if the car were going to explode I would tell the driver to stay away too.

After this roller-coaster of worry about my car, I remembered something my mom had told me about becoming a first time mom. She said that the first time my brother had gotten sick with a fever, she flipped out, she read all the books she had on hand (this was pre-WebMD, which is probably a good thing), called my grandmother, everything and everyone told her it would be okay, to just give him some baby Tylenol and wait. However, she went to the doctor anyway, he told her the same thing. This and only this assuaged her fears. Dr. Gould, a wonderful man, told her that it was okay for her to come in, she’s a first time mother, everything is a little more high alert, you care so much that you need to make absolutely sure that everything is fine, he then told her to wait until her second kid, she’d be an expert then. He sent her home and didn’t charge her for the visit.

Now it’s not to say that I’m comparing my car to a baby. But there are a few similarities.

1.) When you invest in something, be it your time, your life, your money, your body, your emotions, or a combination therein, you take special care of those things and you want to make sure that nothing is wrong. When it’s your first time around the block, you take extra special care of it. 

2.) The second time around will always be easier, but only in a certain respect. When it comes to children, you will be an old pro, it will become easier to judge when to take the child to the doctor, when to potty train them, or how to deal with tooth pain, but the person will always be different, you’re not creating exact little replicas (man that’s a terrifying thought).

3.) Observation is everything, it is this amazing gift that we all have, to observe and take in what we are seeing, and all of our senses lend themselves to this skill.  

It is worth your while to observe and make notes, especially when it comes to something that you are invested in. It’s how we grow. How we make things and ourselves better.

It’s okay to be overly cautious and a little nervous about something you care about, as long as you take the time to learn and grow from that experience. Otherwise you will just continue to exhaust yourself for no reason. It will never go the same way twice, but being prepared is never a bad thing.  

Here’s to continued hope that my car won’t explode.