Farewell to the Focus

My Dad just sold our last big possession in the U.S. on Monday: our car. The little black Ford Focus has gone on to its next life to be driven by some mountain people in Westel. Hopefully some of the weird things we hauled in that car will have prepared it for what's sure to be an even stranger life up on the plateau. 

Like the giant dog we moved...

And a giant dog bed.

It's very bittersweet to have our car gone. There's also a feeling of finality, knowing that we no longer have such a staple of American life waiting on us. Here we hardly notice the absence of a car. But at home, it's how we do everything - we visit friends, we see family, we do all the little things that make up our life. So it's a sad day, knowing that that part of our American life is completely gone. (For the time being anyway.)

It's also bittersweet to me because the Focus is the car that my parents bought me when I graduated college. It was meant to be their last big "help" as parents. It was a practical way for them to give me the final big thing I needed to start my life completely out of the nest. I always thought because of that, I would drive that car until the wheels fell off, partly because I'm a Burwinkle and we tend to wring every lost drop of usefulness out of items - especially if they're free! But also because that car always represented my parent's love for me, and their continual striving to give Holly and me the skills we needed to stand on our own. 

Who would have known back in 2005 when my Dad bought that car, that in 7 short years I'd be moving to another country? If you ask my parents on certain days, they might say their plan to give me a good education and set me up for great opportunities backfired the day I accepted a job in Australia. But I think most days, they would say that they're happy with the job they did and proud that they raised a daughter who used the values they gave her to jump on new opportunities, even scary ones. 

So it's perfect that my Dad was the one to take on selling the car for us after we left. Just like back when I was a college graduate, he was there to do the practical things for me, the things a daughter always needs her Dad for. Thank you, Dad and Mom, for helping take care of me, even today.