Fear of parking
I wonder how many opportunities I've missed in my life due to my irrational fear of parking. I know it's kind of crazy, but parking the car paralyzes me. I almost didn't take advantage of a free ticket to an awesome performance of Kinky Boots at our downtown theater because...where would I park!?!??!? Seriously, this is a problem. Art festival? Where will I park? Visit St. Augustine (a beautiful, historic town nearby)? No parking! Drive into the city?! I don't think so.
My parents are both long gone, but I think I can trace some of this fear to the way I was raised. My mother had her OB/GYN practice in our home and we lived on a four lane highway. Problematic. We had a small pseudo parking lot on the side of our house, but it wasn't large enough to accommodate my mom's patients and our family cars. Every time mom had office hours, we had to move our cars to another neighborhood and walk home. Not a huge deal, really, until one morning I walked to my car and noticed it was much roomier inside. It took me a minute to realize that someone had stolen the bucket seats. Hmmmm. Difficult to drive without the seats. I got a milk crate from somewhere and drove slowly home. It took a while to replace those seats. Apparently they were quite the hot commodity back then.
I will never forget the day I realized that this fear probably was instilled in me by my mother. I'm sure she didn't intend it, but, you know, mothers...Anyway, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I had a BA in English Literature and was having trouble finding jobs other than secretarial. This was back in the day when we still fetched coffee for the boss; he called me his "girl" and I called him "Mister Whatever." Not for me. We lived in a Philadelphia suburb and Drexel University had an outstanding Masters program in Information Studies. I called my mom to discuss my plans to go back to school for the degree that would enable a career as a librarian. She cried out in a near panic, "But, where will you park?!?" I thought, well, that settles that: no advanced degree for me. Then, it occurred to me that I was making a very serious life decision based on my ability to park the car. Scary.
I did go to Drexel and I found a way to deal with the car parking problem. This was a huge victory for me. Still, this irrational parking fear haunts me. Just as I did after I hung up with my mother, I have to really force myself to think rationally about what I might be missing.
Life is short. Find a way to park the freaking car!!!!
My parents are both long gone, but I think I can trace some of this fear to the way I was raised. My mother had her OB/GYN practice in our home and we lived on a four lane highway. Problematic. We had a small pseudo parking lot on the side of our house, but it wasn't large enough to accommodate my mom's patients and our family cars. Every time mom had office hours, we had to move our cars to another neighborhood and walk home. Not a huge deal, really, until one morning I walked to my car and noticed it was much roomier inside. It took me a minute to realize that someone had stolen the bucket seats. Hmmmm. Difficult to drive without the seats. I got a milk crate from somewhere and drove slowly home. It took a while to replace those seats. Apparently they were quite the hot commodity back then.
I will never forget the day I realized that this fear probably was instilled in me by my mother. I'm sure she didn't intend it, but, you know, mothers...Anyway, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I had a BA in English Literature and was having trouble finding jobs other than secretarial. This was back in the day when we still fetched coffee for the boss; he called me his "girl" and I called him "Mister Whatever." Not for me. We lived in a Philadelphia suburb and Drexel University had an outstanding Masters program in Information Studies. I called my mom to discuss my plans to go back to school for the degree that would enable a career as a librarian. She cried out in a near panic, "But, where will you park?!?" I thought, well, that settles that: no advanced degree for me. Then, it occurred to me that I was making a very serious life decision based on my ability to park the car. Scary.
I did go to Drexel and I found a way to deal with the car parking problem. This was a huge victory for me. Still, this irrational parking fear haunts me. Just as I did after I hung up with my mother, I have to really force myself to think rationally about what I might be missing.
Life is short. Find a way to park the freaking car!!!!
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