For the past week, laughter has hurt. Coughing has been torture. Hiccups have not been their usual funny selves. I’ve held my nose to avoid sneezing. Multiple times, I’ve heard Israel’s King Solomon from three millennia ago: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
In that same mirror, though, reflected the face of a finisher. I had finished last by a large margin, but I had crossed the finish line. I had done it, but I wouldn’t say I had conquered it. My impetuousness had been tempered with humility, and yellow-vested prayers had been answered.
Sitting in a tiny, Italian restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, my wife asked me what was my biggest takeaway from my day representing MINI USA’s Final Test Test Drive program at the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). I couldn’t answer her without a broken voice and tears escaping under my glasses and down my cheeks.
I was whisked away to an adventure that would in no small way make the heart of those dreams come true.
I chose to move to Lynchburg and have fallen in love with it enough to call it home. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that my wife and I are factors in my sister and some of our closest friends emigrating to what we lovingly call “LynchVegas.” Here are the selling points with which I would counter the Lynchburg skeptics.
In the din of a bustling convention center, a wiry stranger walked up to me, leaned close to my shoulder, said one sentence, and then walked away. Before the gentleman even finished his deliberate sentence, I felt like he was sent to to deliver it to me.
For the first nine years of my driving carer, I never got a traffic ticket in my home state.
And then I moved to Virginia.
But this week brought a different sentiment to the uninspiring rental car experience. This week, I wasn’t renting a car from a distant airport. This week, I was driving four wheels’ worth of milquetoast on roads I drive everyday.
Quite frankly, this is the best I idea I have ever had.
It was the simplicity of silver with the showbiz of metallic, the rumble of a stampede with the slipperiness of satin sheets. It was a she, and she was a pending mistress.
It was created from a vacuum of holistic sales with people like me in mind.
I prefer to get more than I paid for from my vehicle—to get more from my journey than the miles.
It’s a lot to brag about in advance. Part of me likes that it will force me to the courage to do what I’ve theoretically wanted to do for years.