The beginning of senior year gives students the first tastes of the independence that comes after high school. The beloved City Place lunch, senior privilege and, for some, the ability to drive oneself to and from school are only a few of the perks that come with being a senior. This freedom creates a sense of euphoria that can only come from driving off campus after a stress-filled school day. On Tuesday afternoon, I opened my car door with a sigh of relief as I imagined the few precious moments of refuge away from the chaos of the first week of school. I turned the key in the ignition ready to hear the roar of the engine, the sound that would set me free from this stressful day. It never came. The battery was dead.

The first week of what is supposed to be the most memorable year of my life turned into one I will, unfortunately, never be able to forget. After a frantic phone call to my parents, I made my first ever call to AAA Roadside Assistance. I watched people around me get into their air-conditioned cars, laughing with their friends as they drove off to enjoy the conclusion of their school day. However, I remained on campus attempting to communicate with a recorded operating system.

After over an hour of waiting in the student parking lot with the hood of my car shamefully propped open, the mechanic arrived to help me revitalize my car. Not surprisingly, he validated that the battery was dead, and that this two-hour ordeal could have been prevented. If my car dealership took three minutes to fill the battery with distilled water each time the car needed service, this would have never happened. My stress-filled day grew with frustration. I was being affected as a result of someone else’s negligence.

Hypothetically, my battery could have blown up from the lack of liquid. While this would have made for a much more entertaining story, it did not provide me with any sense of relief. This experience provided a reminder that while senior year brings opportunities to enjoy the freedoms of adulthood, it also brings the responsibilities that come with it. This experience has also given me the need to write a strongly worded letter to my car dealership.