Our baseball team won the District Finals in May and we were pumped about the opportunity we now had to go all the way to the State Finals. Our team was good, but even better was that we played really well as a team. It was probably because we had all played ball together since we were in first or second grade, and here we are now in our junior year of high school going to the State Finals.

The coach and parents had a meeting a few days after our most recent victory and determined the arrangements for getting all of our team to the Baseball State Finals. It was against school policy to allow any of us to drive ourselves to the big game and the Finals were almost four hours away from our hometown. Our school is somewhat small and has only a few buses, none of which were in great shape. Therefore, it was decided that a few of the parents would volunteer to drive our team to the State Finals in two weeks. Mrs. Smith, Zack’s mom, was one of the parents who volunteered to take six of us in her explorer sport trac. She was very nice and often brought us sunflower seeds, Gatorade and other baseball necessities to our games. I wanted to ride in the explorer sport trac with Zack because I knew it would be comfortable and a lot of fun, especially compared to some of the other parents who were driving.

My dad was working late and had to miss the meeting about the State Finals so when he got home I told him what they decided. I explained that a few parents had volunteered to drive us and one of them was Mrs. Smith. My dad asked if she was the one with the 2005 ford explorer sport trac and I told him that she was. Seven people can ride in the explorer sport trac, so with Mrs. Smith, we still had room for six baseball players and with Zack and me that would leave room for four more and I wondered who else would ride with us. I then remembered how my dad was looking at the 2005 ford explorer sport trac last year and considered buying one. When I asked him why he got a regular truck instead of an explorer sport trac, he smiled and explained to me that he made that choice so he would not have to be the one to drive six teenage boys four hours away to a baseball game. I knew that he was kidding a little but also knew that he was serious, not buying that 2005 ford explorer sport trac was a smart move on his part, besides Mrs. Smith loved this kind of stuff.

I realized then that the kind of vehicle you have can determine a lot about your life or choices you are faced with making. I never thought that the kind of car you had meant a whole lot, as far as what size it was. Nevertheless, I became smarter that day when I learned that there was a reason that Mrs. Smith drove an explorer sport trac and that my dad drove a regular truck that could seat two people. I was not sure what kind of vehicle I would end up with when I was older, maybe something in between an explorer sport trac and a truck. But I knew that the Ford trucks were trucks that I definitely wanted to drive at some point in the future. I knew then that Ford was a car manufacturer that was at the top of its league. They were not willing to give up their number 1 spot.