A Grown Man and Still Taking My Parents’ Advice.

My mother is over fifty years old and she still takes advice from her mother. No matter how older or wiser you grow your parents will always be older and wiser than you are. Sometimes when your parent’s advice doesn’t make sense its not that they are too old to be relevant, but it can be that you’re still too young to comprehend sound logic.

I am an active duty soldier and I recently moved to Hawaii to work in Human Resources. I was going to ship my car here while I was on the main land for a two week vacation, but my mother said that it would cost too much money to take care of the car. Hawaii is an expensive place to live. Gas here cost $4.00 compared to $3.08 in my hometown. I have been living here for a little over a month and it has been hard for me without a car. Mainly because I cannot go off post as I want and explore the Island.

Everything I can possibly need is located on the military base. I have a PX store that is similar to a Target, there is also a grocery store, library, gym, church, and other commodities that makes life without a car fairly comfortable. The downside is that I have to walk everywhere. Although, the main places I go are walking distance it still gets tiring to have to walk in the blistering sun. Even if the weather is comfortable it is still a drag to have to carry all of my groceries back to my barracks room. I never purchase all that I want because the bags will be too heavy to carry.

Every time I have to walk a long distance I send my mother a complaining text message about how I want to ship my car to Hawaii, but she argues that it cost a lot of money for me to pay for insurance, gas, and matinence fees because my 2005 Ford Taurus has over 140,000 miles and who knows how much longer it will drive.

To make the distances to my locations shorter and easier I bought a bicycle. I can’t go to the mall with it, but at least it gets me around the military base more comfortably. The bike cost me $200 but since I’m stationed in Hawaii for three years I think an expensive bike is worth the investment. So far I’m enjoying my bike. It also helps with my groceries because I can hang the bags on the handle bars.

I am 24yrs old and I still take advice from my parents. It may not always be what I want. I still rather have a car than a bicycle, but looking at the big picture that is over $1,000 I can save each year by not having to pay for car insurance, $480 I can save each year by not getting an oil change, and another $480 I can save by not paying $40 in gas each month. That is almost $2,000 I am saving by not having a car and at the end of my Hawaii enlistment I know that I will be more happy seeing more money in my saving account than leaving Hawaii broke because I wanted the luxury of a car.