Thursday, December 16, 2010

77,777

The odometer in a car is a silly thing. Sure it keeps track of oil changes, tire rotations and other routine maintenance of your car, but I never thought that it would make me stop and think about my life. I always like to think of where I’ll be when I hit those landmark miles… 1000, 5000, 10000, 50000 and of course 77777. It would seem ridiculous to wait for this mile, but I have been waiting since I was just past 60,000 miles!

For those of you that don't know, my car is a 2005 Scion xA. I recieved it as a birthday present 5 days before my 16th birthday. We (my car and I) have been through a lot together! I drove my car to school everyday, parked my little baby in the dirt parking lot at my high school, where it was damaged from a hit and run. Got my first speeding ticket (whoops!) almost a year to the date that I got my car. We did make some upgrades. But most importantly, my car is always there at the times when I'm sad, when I'm happy, when I'm tired, when I'm scared, when I'm worried, when I'm nervous. But the whole point of my car reaching 77,777 miles wasn't for the fact that we've been through a lot together (well I mean we have but not the purpose of my blog), but for where my car takes me in life.

Sure my car can be seen as a physical mode of transformation from different stages in life, but when I drove my 77,777th mile I wasn't on my way to some sweet party, listening to the radio, with 4 other people, rather I was driving to a funeral, with my mom- not to say my mom isn't cool (sorry mom), but it wasn't what I expected. I actually spent most of that mile trying to capture a picture of it.

The funeral was held for my mom's best friend's dad, from grade school. It was held at a Catholic church, which was a unique experience for me, but the funeral made me stop and think "huh, I wonder what my funeral will be like, who will be there, oh. my. gosh. what will they say about me?" Kind of morbid, I know, but the last thought caught my attention for most of the service (again, whoops). This thought caught my attention, not because I had a long list of achievments that they would have to read off in my obiturary, but because what achievements or events or places traveled would be seen as worthy enough to be celebrated. Sure I was the 8th grade class president, I graduated high school and hopefully, almost college, I have traveled a few places, but when it comes down to my funeral what does that all mean. "Yeah Erin did all this for fun, and she was good at it and she will be missed" Really? Is that really what they're going to say?

I didn't know too much about Al, the man who we were all gathered to celebrate, but his daughter Michele, my mom's friend, spoke about her dad and his life, not through his achievements but through the things that he cared about most.

So as I'm about to reach an unbelievably long blog post, I will leave this. The thing I care about most. Relationships. The ones that are difficult, the ones that are fun. The ones that hurt. The ones that feel good. The ones that make me laugh until I can't breathe. The ones that make me cry. The ones with my family. The ones with my friends. The ones with co-workers. The ones with people. The one with Jesus.

I hope people look at my life and see the relationships that I made, and for the few people that attend my funeral, I hope they know that I what I care most about are about people.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34