For Senior Izzy Rendon, it’s not just something useful. It’s a great tool for hanging out with friends. It’s something he looked forward to, and was thrilled with when he finally received it. It’s a great model and draws attention whenever he’s with it. Her name is Sasha, and she’s his 2003 silver-grey BMW.

Rendon searched for months for the perfect car, and purchased the 325i model himself the week before passing his driver’s test. He was excited about owning a BMW for a long time. “When I was little, my cousins both had similar models and I just really liked the car,” he said. As soon as Rendon got his license, he drove to the Starbucks by his house and then to school, not his first choice destinations-wise, but it was a school day.

Since Rendon is past the 12-month period when teenagers with their licenses are not allowed to drive other teens (dmv.ca.gov), one of the best parts of driving for him is being able to drive friends around. “Being able to drive people is a lot of fun, because I can pick up my friends and go places without them having to find their own rides,” he explained. In a way, Rendon’s license and a car has given all of his friends some freedom as well.

Sophomore Tyler Culp can attest to this.  “I rode in Izzy’s car to a cross country meet.”  According to Rendon, driving to track and cross country meets have been the funniest trips he’s been on, due to listening to random music and having to drive to schools an hour or more away.

Of course, there was also the time when he changed a tire at three a.m.  “My friends and I were driving on the freeway, and we heard a weird noise behind us, like a thump-thump. We pulled off into the parking lot of Walmart, and saw that my tire was totally shredded. So I changed the tire in the parking lot of Walmart at three in the morning,” Rendon said, laughing.

While some mornings you can drive to school and hear juniors and seniors honking their horns across the parking lot, Rendon doesn’t find this so entertaining. Instead, he and his friends lock each other in the trunk of his car for a couple of seconds. “We’ll just put someone in the trunk and then sit on it so they can’t open it.  We don’t do it if it’s super hot like it’s been, though, and it’s only for a few seconds,” he explained. After all, being trapped in someone’s trunk might not pass with a teacher as an excuse for being late to class.

And as for the name, no one really knows why his car is called Sasha. “My friends just started calling her Sasha for no reason and now that’s what it’s called. Even my family calls it Sasha,” Rendon explained. Other than the inside of the car getting warm on hot days because of the leather, “…‘Sasha’ has no real flaws.”
For Rendon, Sasha is not just a car. It’s his way of getting places, a means for meeting and hanging out with friends, and the difference between being an upperclassman and a freshman. His car gives him what every teenager strives for: independence.