Many High School athletes play standard sports either in their free time, or for their school. Many of these include basketball, football, volleyball, etc. Many of these sports require purchases of gear, balls, fees and fines, and other charges. While many parents may find these to be expensive, my favorite sport requires the purchase of heavy machinery and expensive parts.

I know it may sound like I’m bragging, but all I’m saying is that it’s a unique pain in the rear.

A sport I haven’t done in a while, simply because of this reason, is dirt biking. Dirt biking is a very uncommon sport, especially for teens here in the suburban midwest. In fact, there’s only two other people at NNHS that I know of that ride. As long as I can remember, I have been riding dirt bikes. I don’t remember much from when I lived in California, but I still remember the day that I got my first Honda XR50, training wheels and all. Ever since then, my journey has been parent – fund – assisted, but that stopped around my sophomore year. Hopefully with my new job and plans to live at home during my early years of college to dodge rent I can take it up again. Ideally, my next bike is one that I could have for as long as possible, a KTM 300 XCW. It would be a while though, as they are excellent machines in high demand.

Another one of my favorite ‘sports’ is really more of a hobby. RC racing. This one I have found to be even more unique than dirt biking, because it is (ugh) expensive, and there is only one location I know of with two tracks an hour away. Typically this is a winter activity, as I dirt bike and travel in the summer and in the nice weather, where this racing can be done indoors. Why am I racing RC cars? Well, they aren’t the typical cars that use AA batteries that you pick up at Radio Shack – you have to get them online or from fanatical hobby stores. They require LiPo batteries that use heavy duty chargers, and they can commonly reach ~30mph on a flat. I again haven’t done these in a while and might not because of Covid – it’s kept the building closed.

One final one, again, more of a hobby and my favorite pastime, is video games. I really like the culture of online games, because there’s limitless possibilities for what you can do, and no matter what kind of person you are, I can guarantee there’s a game out there for you. It doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, either. You can play whatever game or run whatever program you want on minimal material, buying games, consoles, computers, or computer parts used or on sale. Or you can be a nut like me and a couple friends of mine that fancy the newest and shiniest parts on the market for maximum performance in competitive settings.

At the end of summer, I picked myself up a job at Portillos at Ogden. Ever since then, (outside of the cross country season) iv’e been working extensively (25 – 30 hour weeks), but exactly for what purpose?

A car is something  that as I become older I realize I need more and more, especially when I head off for college. While I can get away with borrowing my parent’s cars or getting dropped off right now, I probably can’t do that forever. So what do I want? It’s been a question iv’e been asking for a while, because a car is no small purchase.

The first car I considered (and the one I will come back to at the end) is a Ford Mustang. No any mustang, though. A terminator body style, made roughly from ’98 – ’05. I found these to be the cheapest, but coolest looking versions of the car to date. There are also quite a few of these models so even though it’s older, parts shouldn’t be too hard to come by should I need any spares. It of course, fits the more sporty profile that I would love to have. Many of these cars come in manual as well, something that would be both interesting to learn and to drive every day.

The second car I considered was a Subaru WRX. These cars are sporty as well, but of a different kind. Looking at some from the same era (early 2000s), also called the ‘blobeye’ model because of the headlights, they look sporty and are somewhat common. These cars, however, were almost built to be modified and built on. There are endless body kits, aftermarket parts and aesthetics for this car so, after spending a pretty penny, you can have a car just the way you want.

The third and last car that I considered was a Mitsubishi Spyder Eclipse. This probably would have been the better option for a person like me who doesn’t have an amazing job or a bunch of money, as they would be cheaper to buy and to fuel. Another cool feature, that is much more uncommon on the other two cars, is that the Eclipses can commonly be found in a convertible version. After taking my first ride in a convertible ever last summer, I fell in love with them, especially after thinking riding with the windows down couldn’t get any better. So, this car would’ve offered a decent amount of satisfaction at a lower cost, making it tied with the two seemingly hard to beat choices above.

So who’s the winner? Well, as I mentioned earlier, I would be coming back to the mustang, and yes, hopefully that is the car I am only two weeks away from purchasing. Why? Accessibility and uniqueness. It actually turns out, the car up the street from me that inspired my initial interest in the terminator mustangs, went up for sale. Another cool feature is that is is a special model – an SVT Cobra. That means that on top of the big american V8 engine and a cobra badge on the outside, it has hopped up suspension, better brakes, and other internal features to make you feel like every day is track day.

Ultimately, I wanted to get the message out that whenever you make a big purchase, it’s important to consider all your options and think about it for a while, and I shared my experience. There’s plenty more I could’ve gone over, but for the sake of time I shared the big things.

Best of luck out there to whatever you’re doing.