Anniversary

Today was the one-week anniversary of my new carless existence. I have not driven a vehicle in 7 days. I am in good health, and have experienced no withdrawal symptoms so far. Amazingly, I have been driving almost daily since I was eighteen. There was a period of a few months, when I took the subway to work, back on the east coast. Even so, I would drive at least 3 or 4 days a week for errands or other reasons. Driving was almost therapeutic too; whenever I felt stressed or ill at ease, I would go out for a scenic drive and listen to my favorite music, and I would immediately relax and find peace. But I can accomplish the same by walking or biking. I have the utmost confidence that in eight days time I will be breaking my previous record, which I will exceed by orders of magnitude. My goal is a minimum of six months. I have decided that if I accomplish my goal, I will reward myself with an exotic two-seater with a nice manual transmission; perhaps I will even start my own restoration project.

Who knows, in six months I may not even miss owning a car, or I may have other priorities. Perhaps the most appealing part of this experiment is to see if I still have the potential to change myself in a radical way.

Time will tell.

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