Personal Narrative: My Shift In A Car

After five hours under Mrs. Gonzalez’s 1997 Plymouth, my hands were so dirty I had to wash them ten times just to see my fingernails again. She was a familiar face around the shop, given that neighborhood thieves had routinely targeted her car. This time, though, they had gone too far. Someone had crawled underneath the car and cut out the valuable catalytic converter, and she couldn’t afford a replacement. When I looked at her and said, “That’ll be $563,” her face turned pale. She looked like she was about to faint.
My time spent as a mechanic started with an accident of my own. I was driving home after my sophomore year of college when one of the pistons on my pickup truck cracked due to the blazing Texas heat. I barely made it to the mechanic’s shop near my house. Though the tinkerer in me wanted to do the work myself, I knew that deconstructing the engine down to the block wasn’t a task for a YouTube-trained mechanic. I also knew I couldn’t afford the $1300 in labor. So instead of footing the bill for the repairs, I struck a deal …show more content…
I spent the first week scouring the course catalog and talking to a transfer and an undergraduate advisor. They were both supportive of my newfound dedication to the law and encouraged me to give it a shot. The transition to UT was a struggle. I was taking four government and law classes and was I more academically challenged than I’d been my whole life. About halfway through the semester, though, I felt confident in my decision to pursue law. I enjoyed the parts and procedures involved in the legal system. The legal system functions like a car with disparate parts and processes that need to work in unison to be effective. Addressing a particular issue, or trying a specific case, requires a holistic understanding and a powerful, focused skill set, just like a