(Dominic Toretto)-“I used to drag here back in high school. That railroad crossing up there is exactly a quarter mile away from here…[Looks over at Brian]..On green, I'm going for it.

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[Engines rev as the light turns green, Dom (in his Dodge Charger) and Brian (in his Toyota Supra) speed away towards the railroad crossing. Scene shows a train rolling down the tracks as Brian and Dom look at eachother. Shows both of the two shifting up in gears and using nitrous to  increasing speed.]
[Both cars fly over the train tracks just seconds before the train crosses.The drivers both look at each other smiling, and careless of the road. A truck pulls out slowly from the side and clips the Dodge Charger, sending the car(with Dom inside) spiraling in the air.]
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[Brian stops his car, and runs over to the totaled Charger]
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(Brian O’Conner)-”Dom!”
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(Dominic Toretto[sitting in the car, bleeding])-”That's not what I had in mind.”
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[Brian pulls Dom out of the wrecked car and stands him up. They hear sirens coming to the scene. Paul hands Dom the keys to his Toyota Supra to drive away.]
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(Dominic Toretto)-”You know what you're doing?”
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(Brian O’Conner)-”I owe you a 10-second car.”
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[Dom drives away with the Supra, escaping the police.]

Well that’s a strange way to start off a story. It probably just left you confused and wanting to move on, but don't worry, I will explain everything.

Hi, my name is David. I’m a six foot, brown haired, average 16 year old guy. I play sports, go to high school, and deal with everyday drama. I have a couple loves in my life. Most are pretty typical, people things, such as my love for my family/friends, my love for a sport and favorite sports team, but there’s this one that’s just a bit different. There are endless amounts of hobbies and lifestyles out there. Some people like to go out to clubs, some people like to play sports, travel, or even stamp collect, but there is one hobby that hundreds of thousands like to do, and that’s to modify cars. Whether it’s for show, race, drift, or even work. For most people, getting your license just means getting from point A to point B in a quicker fashion, however for me it was an introduction to a new hobby, and possibly a new addiction. Driving just for driving’s sake, having a love for your car, and then wondering “How do I make the experience better?”. Then you get curious and start working on your car, trying to improve the car from how it came from the factory, from engine upgrades, to just get that little bit more out of your car, to push it to go that extra second faster, to small exterior/interior upgrades to make it more luxurious. In today's world, this lifestyle has been negatively skewed by news and other media, publishing stories of illegal street races and fatal car crashes due to racing/drifting. This hobby has generally been looked at in the incorrect manner. This is not always the case. Not all people who admire cars drive like idiots. Most are the safest of drivers, only because they want to protect their ride. I have minimal experience in the world of cars. I got my license less than six months ago, but that doesn’t matter, because my interest in cars began a long time ago.

I think after all that you deserve an explanation now, well here it goes. At the beginning of this story, you read the ending scene to one of my favorite movies of all time. That movie is called “The Fast and The Furious”. This movie came out to theaters in 2001, and it would be the first installment in one of the Hollywood’s most successful movie series of all time. Starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel as two of the main characters in the movie based around the L.A. street racing scene. Mr. Walker played an undercover cop who was sent to go after and catch the leader of the racing scene in Los Angeles, who was played by Vin Diesel. The movie introduced many viewers to the small population of car enthusiasts. The movie was filled with ricers(people who made ridiculous exterior changes to their cars), insanely fast and beautiful cars, and a great storyline.

My dad bought the VHS of “The Fast and The Furious” when I was four years old, and you bet I can still remember the first time watching that exhilarating film! I was in awe. I remember sitting down on the floor in front of the couch facing the TV as my Mom and Dad sat on the couch. Sitting there on the floor I can clearly remember seeing an orange car speeding down an empty highway, Paul Walker in the driver’s seat, shifting through gears.
“Wow that car is so cool! When I grow up I want to drive that kind of car! Dad do you like it?”, I said as my four year-old self jumped up and looked back at my parents.

“Yes sure David! I will buy you that car when you’re older and you get a driver’s license”, my dad responded.
I sat back down, all jittery inside, and finished watching the movie with my parents. I was only four, so all the movie did was get me obsessed with hot wheels, and of course my mom found a toy hot wheels car that was a somewhat yellow color and convinced me into thinking that it was “that orange car” that I saw in the movie. I fell in love with it. I slept with it. I carried it around everywhere I went. This is my earliest memory of an interest that I had in cars.

My Dad, a short, brown haired eastern european, owned a manual transmission 1989 Nissan 240sx, which was a cheap car to buy back when he came to America. It was red with a black upper, and had those old hideaway headlights. I thought that was the coolest thing when I was a kid. Watching my dad drive home from work,he would turn his lights on just see me smile when I saw those headlamps come up and almost “look at me”. My dad was a responsible driver, for the most part. He did speed a couple times, sometimes getting tickets or sometimes not. But one day, my dad wanted to excite me, so he decided to accelerate quickly and fly through his gears. This ended with him pulling off to the side of the road with flashing lights behind him. From then on he drove cautiously, well atleast I think he did, my mom never really allowed me in that car again. Eventually the fun ended in my dad’s car enthusiasm came to a halt because it came time to move out of our grandmother’s house and and start settling down with a job, home, and family. He drove a hard bargain though. He tried to sell the car for $500, but a buyer was stubborn enough to offer only $250. This got him angry so instead of selling the car my dad drove it to a junkyard, left the title, the car, and $50. He never went back. Now, almost thirteen years later, he owns a home with a garage for two cars. The only problem is, is that he owns six cars. Might I remind that, including me, there are only four people in our family, three of which can drive. My uncle, a tall eastern european man with dark black hair (also godfather), on the other hand, came into this country very young. He ended up buying a manual transmission 1995 Eagle Talon Tsi when he was just a bit older than me. This car was insane, due to its lightweight body, its power and the fact that it was an All Wheel Drive (AWD) car. My uncle also wasn’t the brightest of teenagers, eventually wrecking the car’s front end which in turn busted the engine. He ended up selling the wrecked car to a buddy of his for some bit of cash and bought himself another stick-shift, a white 1993 Nissan 300zx turbo. He kept this one safe, eventually getting rear-ended. He fixed up his car and, unlike my dad, began working on it. He upgraded the exhaust and small parts in the engine. This gave the car a beautiful “purr” sound when it drove by, but when it accelerated it was as loud as a jet. Whenever he were to come over, he would turn the corner and speed straight to our house to let us know he was coming! Surprisingly, it worked, and every time we heard “some idiot speeding” and corrupting the silence of our peaceful neighborhood, it ended up being my godfather. But he ended up going down the same road as my dad, sold his beautiful car when he got a family and a home of his own.

After both cars were sold, cars just dissapeared from my mind. They were still there as transportation we used to get from one place to another, but it was just that and nothing more. I went into playing a lot of video games after that in my childhood, becoming a nerd. I loved video games. Playing on my Playstation 2 was a lot of fun. I was going through and beating adventure games, shooters, strategy, horror, I was going through them all. Then, when I was twelve, I downloaded this game on my computer called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I had no idea what I was in for. A free-roam game where you can jack cars, shoot people, join gangs, sell drugs, and customize cars....customize cars. So, I did what I did and stole a car in the game. I drove up to the in-game garage and began. Took me about three minutes to waste all my virtual money on the car. I then started to play the game online. There were different groups of people playing, some were shooting each other, some were completing in-game missions, but then I stumbled upon a server where everyone was “drifting”. This was when “drifting” was very popular because of the release of the third installment to the Fast and Furious series, “Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift”. Drifting was the act of driving at a corner at a speed and suddenly stopping the rear wheels, which threw your car sideways, and then counter steering, while pressing on the throttle and shifting a gear to allow the tires to spin and sending you on a sideways turn around corner. If done right, this is an insanely amazing sight to see, but if done wrong, the consequences could be very bad. As you can tell by my ameateur and simple explatation of the art, it is not that easy of a skill to master. In-game this was cool to see. A harmless drifting with virtual cars and other people online on a game that is heavily criticized for being “too violent”. Here was an open world game that some people were using just to drive around. I started getting the hang of this online drifting, I got pretty good at it. And just like that I was back. Back into the car world, I dropped all other games and began playing this almost daily. I loved it. I started becoming more and more interested in cars, what to do with them, how to drift, how to increase horsepower. But then it hit me. I wouldn’t be getting my license for another four years. That was a great disappointment, but it didn't stop me.

I started searching up different cars, watching car movies,talking to my cousins and talking to people online. Finally I remembered. “The Orange Car”. I went back and watched the first Fast and Furious movie. There again was the scene, the orange car just cruising down the empty road. The targa top was off(the roof was removable), a sweet body kit, and a big wing on the back. There again was Paul Walker, shifting through gears.

“I want that car.”, I thought to myself. But what is it. I tried searching it up but it wouldn’t come up. Finally I had to consult an expert. After a week of searching I asked “Hey dad, remember that orange car from..”
“The Toyota Supra?”, without hesitation, my dad interrupted me with a smile on his face.

“Ummm, yeah I think. The one that was in the first Fast and Furious?” , I asked, getting the chance to finish this time.
“Yup that’s the Toyota Supra, why are you asking?”, my dad wondered.

“Didn’t I tell you I would buy that car one day? Well I’m gonna go look them up!”, I responded over-enthusiastically.

I ran to my room and looked them up. Oh WOW, were they beautiful. I loved them. Their slick look, the stupid whale-tail spoiler on the back, and the amazing interior. I say amazing because it is. You sit down in the driver's seat and everything is facing you, some people compare it to being as if in a fighter jet. But all these random symbols popped up that I knew nothing about. Prices were all over the place, the milage made no sense, and what in the world does RWD mean?

From then on I kept searching. Drifting was “in” nowadays so I looked for some drift cars that I would want to have when I'm older, and one stuck out. It was a newer version of one that was used in “Tokyo Drift”. I wanted a Nissan 370z. It was a very magnificent new design on a car that involved some soft, yet also some sharp curves. and especially with the Nismo model that came with an additional spoiler on the back end of the car and a higher horsepower. I was set on getting that car.

Then I grew up a bit and realized that I’m probably not going to get a brand new car. All I knew is that I wanted a Manual transmission on it. No matter what it was, I did not care how old, or how ugly. I would fix it up myself and have my dad help teach me to drive a stick-shift. My Dad and I looked online for ages for cars. I was searching up Nissan 240sx’s, 300zx’s, 350z’s Mitsubishi Eclipse’s, Evolution’s, Mazda rx7’s and especially Toyota Supra’s. I was all over the place with car selections. I could never find a good deal, and if there was one, then it would be out of state. Luckily for me my dad is in the trucking business and has many connections. He has a buddy who owns a car shop. He buys beat up/ wrecked cars, fixes them up, and sells them for a profit. He knew we were looking for a car and called us up right away to come over. So we did. My Dad told me not to smile not to say anything about how nice it is, or how much I want it, because then his buddy would, like all car sellers, definitely bump up the price a bit cause he know we want it. The buddy led us over to his parking lot full of cars with bumpers and fenders just hanging off of cars with smashed windshields? He led us over to one car that had the front bumper knocked off and dented hood. Nothing that bad. It was a 2001 BMW 540i with manual transmission. He told us the price and I could not help but smile. My dad did the same. $4000 for a BMW?! You, reading this, probably don't have that good of an understanding of what’s happening right now, but let me just tell you, this was a steal!

As of 3 months now, I have been driving around in a manual transmission car, and I love it. There is really no feeling that can match it. The sensation of stepping on the accelerator, hearing and feeling your engine rev up and then finally calming it down by stepping on the clutch and switching gears is just breathtaking. I’m am a very average teen. I say average because I am always stressing out over school, drama in my friend groups, and just life in general, and driving my stick-shift is just very calming for me. If I get really worked up over everyday life situations, then I just go out and drive. Sometimes I park in a parking lot and just sit and cool off in my car. It doesn't take long for me to chill out. I go out driving also, and especially, when I’m happy! It’s  a great feeling. I think getting a stick-shift and getting into cars really changed me. I’m more calm of a person now, with a new and thrilling hobby! I recommend getting a stick shift for everyone! It opens up a new world that most people are blind to. I promise if you do learn to drive a stick shift, you will automatically (Haha, get it?) have a sudden appreciation for cars. Most people jam out while they’re in their cars. They blast their music with their windows open and sing along. I may have not gotten that orange car that I always dreamed of, but maybe one day. Until then I’d rather just open the window and listen to my V8 bimmer engine.