Car-less

I can’t remember ever not having a car.

Growing up in the country, I got my license almost as fast as possible after turning 16.  As the oldest child, that meant I got to have a car to drive to school once I could drive by myself, in return for driving my sisters to their after school activities.  In university, I basically had a car of some sort the whole time, mostly for my parents’ convenience so they didn’t have to drive and get me.  After I moved to Toronto, my parents’ car stayed with me, because with a cat getting home to visit would have been next to impossible otherwise.

So, for the past 2 years and a few months that I’ve lived in Toronto, I’ve had my parents’ car, and my little sister has gotten increasingly jealous of it.  Recently, it turned into a full out fight between us, which is rare… we usually get along creepily well for sisters.  I hate fighting, but the fact that she was so, well, bitchy about it… I got pretty defensive.

But I couldn’t think of any way to fix it.  I live the furthest from Mom and Dad, so the car is more necessary to visit.  Plus, after more than 2 years, the car had become pretty ingrained in my life.  I wasn’t sure what I would do without it.

Something had to give, and that something was me.

A week after the issue came to a head, the transit in the city little sis lives in went on strike.  I knew she could likely get to campus okay, it was just a bit of a walk… but getting to work and getting groceries were going to be impossible for her.  So, I contacted my sister, even though we weren’t exactly speaking, and asked if it would be helpful for her to have the car for the next few weeks, because after this weekend, I wouldn’t really need it until Christmas.  I dropped the car off to her today, and took the train back to Toronto.

So here I am, car-less for a few weeks at least.  I figure, in the spirit of Project Simplify, this can be an experiment of sorts.  I’ve become pretty reliant on my car… even though I take transit to work every day, I still use the car for so much.  Do I really need it?  Can I get by without it?  People do it all the time, in fact, most of my friends here get by without vehicles.

It made my sister happy, it made my mom happy we weren’t fighting, and it will give me a chance to try something new and see if I can live more simply.  We’ll see how it goes.