Goodbye to my first car

Today I say goodbye to my very first car -- a 2000 Honda Civic that I bought in November 1999. At that time, 13 years ago, I had just taken my first job out of university at the Peterborough Examiner and, as a requirement of the job, I needed my own vehicle. 

And although I ended up only staying at the job for six months (yes, I hated it that much), I managed to put 30,000 kilometres on my little car in its first year. It was pretty easy to do considering I drove it every day on assignment and my then-boyfriend (now-husband) lived an hour and a half away (and didn't have a car). So needless to say, I spent a lot of my days off driving back and forth to Toronto.

I was super excited to get my car back in 1999 -- and my dad snapped this picture of me on the day I picked it up at my parents house (my dad actually picked it up at the dealership for me and brought it back to their house for me to collect).

Look how young I look with my shiny new car!

Over the years, my little Honda Civic has been a damn good car. It took us on trips to Montreal and New York City; it took us to visit family and it took us to the hospital when I was in labour. It's what we drove Austin home from the hospital in. 

But in the last few years, it most definitely entered its senior years. Some of the widows started sticking, the doors squeaked when opened, and the locks only worked when they wanted to. But hey, we figured, who needs locks -- because who's going to want to steal an old car like this!

And, to be perfectly honest, I haven't even driven it much in the last five years. Ryan had the 'joy' of seeing that car through to its retirement as I drove the kids around in our newer SUV. He got to experience all of its aches and aging pains.

But I still loved that car. And on the days I did drive it, it was still a good car to drive (Although a pain to cart kids around in because the power locks didn't work anymore).

This afternoon, I will drive it once last time to the dealership where I will sign it over in exchange for the keys of a brand new 2013 Hyundai Elantra hatchback. It too is a cute little car, and although technically it'll be in my name, it'll be Ryan's car -- he deserves to drive a new car after putting up with my little car for all these years. I almost feel like the dealership is getting the short-end of the deal by giving us $500 for it.

And so, just for the sake of bookending -- since my dad snapped a picture of me with my car on the day I got it, Austin snapped a picture of me with it on the day I give it away. Really, from a purely 2D point of view, the only thing that looks likes it's aged in the last 13 years is me!