Senior Shannon McElhaney’s 1994 Buick LeSabre is a typical teenager’s messy room on wheels. By no means is it glamorous, but it is pretty amazing; everything from the random junk to the precious stuffed lions in the front seat.
McElhaney inherited the car in February of last year from her family. “First it was my grandpa’s car, and then he gave it to my dad, and then it was my brother’s car, and now it’s mine,” McElhaney explained.
McElhaney’s car may be messy, but the junk in her car only makes it more endearing. “I have a lot of trash, two stuffed animal lions, a skateboard, a tennis racquet, random shoes, and more trash [in the backseat],” McElhaney said.
But perhaps the best feature of McElhaney’s car is the set of 100-watt subwoofers in the trunk. Even though they are buried underneath three feet of junk, the loudspeakers can still blast the bass. McElhaney plays a wide variety of music, from Blink-182 to her favorite Taylor Swift. “I just love playing everything really loud,” she explained.
“Everyone says they have the funnest car rides in my car,” said McElhaney. Senior Stephanie Paulino can attest to this. “We were driving to the Hunger Games premiere,” she explained, “[and] jamming to T-Swift, and we were yelling out of the window at random cars, ‘we’re going to the Hunger Games b*tch**!’”
One of McElhaney’s most memorable and scariest moments with her car took place last year. She said, “We were going to the CIF basketball game last year, and I accidentally cut off this big, scary guy. We got to a stoplight and he got out of his car and started banging on my window!”
Although the car is 18 years old, it is already starting to wear down. “One time I was driving with Shannon and her mirror just fell off,” said Senior Andrea Sarmiento. But that is nothing compared to what Senior Malia Wooten had to deal with. “We had just left McDonald’s and were turning around a corner when the steering wheel locked up all of a sudden and we had to pull over.”
No matter how old McElhaney’s car is (after all, age is just a number), or how many times the steering wheel locks up on her in the middle of traffic, it gets the job done and she gets to call it hers. As McElhaney says, “It’s awesome; I love my car.” Her car may not be the most extravagant, but it is a true testament to the notion that high school students can have great experiences with the most modest of cars.