Who ordered the scrambled brains?

One day, Volvo S40, you will be mine. All mine.

…

What? You think the quality of my posts has declined? Fine I’ll write more.

I used to be pointedly uninterested in material wealth, especially that to which status is attached. Just last year I was content with driving a Honda Civic the rest of my life. A hybrid model, that is. But in the last six months, I’ve become more interested in cars than ever. It’s the quintessential college student status icon: it’s sporty and active, it’s expensive but we’re not talking houses here, and there’s enough variety for individuality. And most importantly, it fits right into the priveleged class path to success: materialism motivates you through college and onto a high-paying professional carreer, where you’ll never need to see a homeless man or drink non-Starbucks coffee again.

So I wonder why I have let myself become so enamored with cars? First it was the Audi A4. Until everyone and their robotic vaccums got one. Then it was the Infiniti G35 Coupe. Until I found out Infiniti was owned by Nissan, as inferior a car company as any American brand. And ever since I saw the vastly improved 2005 model, it’s been the S40. And why not? Volvo is known for safety. Nobody else really drives that car, or covets it for that matter. But it looks like a cross between an A4 and a G35. And it starts at only $24,500. Come to think of it, so did the A4. The G35 was a little more, but hey, it only took me 3 days before I looked up their corporate affiliation on the internet. Which makes me realize that, while the status associations of these vehicles appeals to me, their price tags do much more. And thus I conclude that status can’t be so much part of the lure, as status comes mostly by way of price. Instead, perhaps value, comfort, safety, and fun are more accurate.

But maybe also it’s the fact that I’ve always been a terrible student, and over the last year I’ve been trying to look for reasons to graduate, to motivate me to pick up that book after I set it down, or turn off the computer after I’ve … turned it on. So I mostly came to focus on this: Pay off my loans and take this insultingly, selfishly long financial burden off my parent’s backs. And as stressful as that goal is, the car fixation is relieving. The car fixation, I believe, closely followed the debt fixation as a needed counterbalance. So when I think of that day in December when I can finally turn my back on UCLA, bittersweetly, I see myself on the path toward that car. Which, when that day finally does come, probably won’t be all too appealing anymore.

I mean, the Civic’s got better gas mileage anyway.

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