road trip by Abby H. '20
here in my car I feel safest of all I can lock all my doors it's the only way to live in CARS
I really like driving. I wanted to go to college in a city with plenty of free parking (oh the naivete). One of the “cons” on my pro/con Should I go to MIT? list was “I can’t take my car with me.”
Freshman year I got kind of used to walking places and taking the T. Eventually I got lazy and started using Lyft more, for the convenience and also because I like riding in cars.
Sophomore year I got a Zipcar membership (only $15 for a 1-year subscription, and cars typically hire for $12/hour or so on the weekends) because I needed to drive. It’s a calming experience for me even when there are angry Boston drivers on the road.
Where do I drive to? The short answer is “food.” I go to Star Market for groceries. I go to chain restaurants with parking lots. Sometimes after I get food I go to the Ocean State Job Lot, one of the best stores for $5 clothing, wiper blades, household goods, strawberry-kiwi flavored Luden’s cough drops, irregular jelly beans, and all sorts of other things in no discernible order.
Brief digression: I’m from the part of America that has Walmart and multiple cars per family and Chick-fil-a and backyards and public transportation that most people never use. As a newish resident of the liberal bubble that is Cambridge, Massachusetts, I understand a lot of these Middle America comforts are impractical or bad for the environment or just unnecessary. Nevertheless, I miss the terrible “Italian” food at my local Olive Garden, not because it’s good, but because it’s what I grew up with.
So sometimes I find myself doing little road trips like the one below.
Highly recommend, even if the food isn’t that great.