Tired of being owned by jobs

As an adult child, I have spent my life being owned. First by my parents and their dysfunctional needs. Then being own by my own materialistic needs. The finest stereos, nice sports cars, the finest clothes... and this was when I was in my 20s. And it just kept getting worse. I have spent the better part of my life being owned... by things I thought I owned...

Alright, the alarm clock got me out of bed and my day has started. I'm ready to go. The next choice I have is what car I will drive to work. I have two cars. One I got from the junk yard about four years ago. I paid $200 for it and I've never had a major expense with it. It is the perfect work car. It gets 37 miles to the gallon and it's just cheap to run. But coming from the junk yard it does have some things that should be fixed... but why? It's just a work car. So in the winter it doesn't heat the best and in the summer the air conditioning is rolling down all the windows.

The only time I don't drive it to work is if its snowing or the roads are icy. Then it's time to break out the SUV. It's four wheel drive so I'm comfortable in it though I do lose quite a bit with the gas mileage.

So, I hop in one of these cars and head to work. The government says that I own these cars. And yes, in the file cabinet right next to me are the titles to these cars.... but the fact is I don't own these cars they own me.

I need to make sure the fluids are maintained, I need to change oil at regular intervals, replace worn belts and change wore out tires. All for the luxury of that car to take me some place. I've got to make sure the registration and the insurance are kept up for something that doesn't move on the average of 20 hours a day.

It will sit in a parking lot while I work for nine hours. Then it will sit in the garage anywhere from nine hours to eleven hours. All for the luxury of having something when I need it. There are times that the SUV won't move for a week, yet I still must maintain insurance on it.

So, how do I regain ownership over these cars? I'm tired of being owned by them. One solution would be to find a job closer to home, which wouldn't be that difficult, but I'd still have to travel to get groceries and other supplies at a cheap price. So while I may find a job closer to my home, I will lose money in wages and necessities for the home.

Another solution would be to get rid of one of the cars. But they both serve a purpose... yet they both own me. Or I could move to the town I work in. If I did that I could just use my junk car to get back and forth to work, in fact on nice days I could walk to work. Then for the first time I would take ownership of my car.

No longer would I need it. I could park it for weeks at a time and have no worry about it. It's an old car so insurance is cheap as well as the registration on it. If I needed a good car for a distant trip, I can rent one cheaper then what it costs me now to own one.

The ultimate refusal with being owned by a car though would be moving to a large city and relying on mass transit.

But first is the baby step. A little part of the freedom I should have enjoyed as a child will be returned to me, when I am no longer owned by a car... I’m tired of being owned and it’s time to reclaim part of my freedom.