Echoes of the Garage

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“The Panic Was the Proof.”

When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?

The first time I felt like a grown-up was when I got sent to collections for unpaid parking tickets.

I was 21, parking in front of the house like it was free real estate.

There was street cleaning twice a week — I knew it — but I didn’t care to move the car.

Didn’t care about the tickets — just stacked them like junk mail on the dash.

Then one day, a letter came: court notice, license suspended, and a bill for over a thousand dollars.

That’s when it hit me.

Not the money.

Not the court.

The panic.

The moment I freaked out — that’s when I knew.

That was adulthood.



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