My biggest achievement so far has been buying my first car.

I spent a long time trying to

figure out what kind of vehicle I wanted, what I would need it for, and how much it would
initially cost me. Plus, ongoing charges such as insurance and repairs. For some people getting a
vehicle isn’t an important achievement but for me it meant freedom. I can come and go as I
please whenever and wherever I want. That isn’t always necessarily a good thing but it’s what I
wanted. I came across my car from one of my friends because she was moving to Vancouver and
needed it gone asap. I knew she had it for only 4 months or so, but she did some basic
maintenance on it to keep it on the road. I ended up buying it from her for cheap it is a Jetta Mk4.
I previously had an interest in mechanics. This pushed my love for it even more. Being able to
work on my own vehicle has taught me so much, as you can just throw money at the problem
and expect it to be fixed especially when you don’t have much money, to begin with. It has also
taught me responsibility because I pay for my own insurance and gas those things aren’t cheap. I
don’t have a job either because of other life commitments that I have so I need to be smart about
where I go and what I break on it. I hope to get into a program at either BCIT, SATE, NATE, or
KPU. In the auto field whether that may be in marine mechanics, heavy-duty, or your everyday
mechanic. So, by fiddling and tinkering with my own car I am teaching myself certain things that
I will be able to carry with me into the future for these programs. Along with all the tools I will
collect throughout the different vehicles and situations I will fix in the future. I am learning
everything very slowly, but I feel like that is ok right now because I would rather teach myself
properly and right the first time than teach it to myself wrong. I’m hoping by doing this will be
able to go into a program and be more successful with the knowledge I will already have. In the
distant future, I would like to open my own auto shop of some kind that will be primarily female-
led because there isn’t much representation for women in a male-dominated field such as this.