A few years ago I purchased a car. I had worked for some time to earn the money to buy this car, and I saved the money I earned specifically to buy the car. I was very proud of having done this and proud of the car itself. It was not a new car, but it was in very good condition and allowed me to go to work and to school without having to depend on others to get where I needed to go. That was the reason I wanted a car in the first place, and the more I worked to get it, the more certain I was I needed it because one of the most difficult parts of working was getting there on time in the first place. Public transportation is not always reliable and has its own schedule which does not necessarily mesh with mine, and because of the distances involved in going to school and going to work, it would be easy to make a mistake and be late. One major advantage with a car is that you can go where you need whenever you want. Traffic can be a problem, but it is a problem with a bus as well. The difference is that the aggravation of driving is the driver's problem and not yours, but the aggravation of being made late is the same either way. All in all, then, a car is an improvement.
At any rate, I earned the money and started searching around for a car. I looked at newspaper ads, but I found it more beneficial to wander from car lot to car lot to see what was sitting there waiting for a buyer. Newspaper descriptions do little to tell you what a car is really like. A friend went with me on these excursions. We used his family car and drove around to various lots until I found something I liked at a price I also liked, always a difficult match to make.
This was a friend I had made at work, and I suppose we had little in common aside from our work now that I think back on it. That can be enough, of course, but not for the sort of job you take just to make money, as opposed to a career choice where you have a real interest in the...