I’m pretty sure all of us remember far more about our very first car than all the others. I thought it would be fun to go down memory lane and share about mine. I think I had an unusual experience with it.

Most young people will get theirs as a hand-me-down or an older, cheaper car purchased by their parents. Some get a nice new one, depending on their families’ income. A lot will work and save up to either buy it themselves or at least contribute to it. I got my first car by none of these means.

At 18 years old, I bought a brand new 1990 Toyota Tercel with my own money-all cash. I had no loan or financial help. Nor did I work or save up for it either.

When I was 7 years old, my grandmother and I were hit by a drunk driver while crossing a very busy street one night. It was a pretty bad accident that forever changed both of our physicality. He got away at the time but was eventually caught. The settlements paid our medical bills, and the rest was given to us in lump amounts, and because I was a minor at the time, mine had to go into a trust until I turned 18.

So when I did, the first thing I did was use some of it to buy a new car. I chose the Toyota Tercel because I thought it was cute AND it wasn’t a Nissan Sentra, was way too popular and “played out” for my taste. Well, they were also getting Volkswagen Jettas and a few others, but in my economical price range, the Tercel felt like me and no one I knew had one.

I thought I was hot stuff with my Pioneer stereo and speakers, which I had installed right after I bought the car. I also had the windows tinted (not a standard feature that the time) too but looking back, I definitely regret getting low-profile tires and expensive rims. That was definitely a “dumb things you did when you were young” choice.

I quickly named her too. She was Andraya and everyone who knew me knew her name too. I really took care of her, cleaning her inside and out almost weekly and getting all the scheduled maintenance on time. I had her for nine years before she would start to have real problems, and by the time I traded her in 1998 with about 100K miles on her, she didn’t even have her original transmission or engine anymore.

Although she hasn’t turned out to be the most reliable or best car I’ve ever owned, she’s the only one I treated like a friend. She was so much a part of my life at the time because she took my friends and me everywhere-the mall, to eat, to the beach, out of town, to work, gave my carless friends rides to work, school or wherever, to the drive in and just cruising around for the sake of cruising.

I have so many good memories of the drive in, like the time my friend Tim hid in the trunk-not because he didn’t have the ticket money, but just to see if we could get away with it. We thought we had, but about twenty minutes into the movie, some workers came to collect the ticket money and said if we ever tried that again, we’d be banned for a year. They said they kept a list of offenders’ makes, models and license plate numbers at the entrance.

When it was clear I needed a new car, I took her to the Ford dealership (I really wanted another Toyota though) to trade her in and I literally could not believe I was not going home with her. I felt like I was leaving a piece of my life behind right there and I had the biggest lump in my throat. She wasn’t just transportation; she represented independence and the start of my adulthood. After looking at several cars, a Ford Escort was what I landed on for its price and nothing else. It was so not me.

I tried to keep the love going and named my Escort Persephone, but she turned out to be a true lemon and didn’t even last 2 years. Since then, they’ve just been vehicles-useful, necessary and replaceable. But I don’t want to jinx myself! My current vehicle, a 2013 Toyota Sienna minivan has 170K plus miles, 12 years and though it’s cosmetically a mess, it still runs beautifully. Maybe one day I’ll tell its story. It does not have a name!