Author Archives | Kelly DeSalvatore

Act of terror affects us all

(On the left) marathon enthusiast Karen Machan finishes the race a few minutes before the first explosion.

(On the right) marathon enthusiast Karen Machan finishes the race a few minutes before the first explosion.

University of Hartford describes itself online as centrally located in between New York City and Boston, but just because Boston is close to UHart does not mean we are the only ones suffering from this act of terror. The Hartford community is just one of the many parts of this nation that is suffering due to the loss of three people from the attack, as well as the injuring of many others.

 

Hampton, Conn. local, Laurie Berand, waited by the finish line to support her sister Karen Machan, who was running in the race. At 2:46, just four minutes before the first of two explosions that were 12 seconds apart, went off, Machan crossed the finish line and immediately went to the medical tent due to dehydration right before the bomb went off. Machan has previously run 9 full marathons and 20 half marathons, but never experienced one as scary as this. Machan plans to keep running despite the danger she was in on Monday. She will be running Big Sur in Cali. on April 28.

 

Berand and Machan’s husband Scott anxiously waited for her to appear. When they could not find her right away after the explosion, they tried calling around to find out what was going on, but the police told them to stay off their phones.

 

Berand said, “Behind the finish line there was police cars, ambulances, Suv’s gators with stretchers roaring by us. I was frantically looking for Karen when her husband Scott got a call from a physician saying that she was in the medical tent.” People there had no idea what was happening; the whole area awash in chaos and crowds.

However, after the second explosion, Berand and her husband John could tell it was not an ordinary fire, and that something terrible had taken place, on what is typically referred to as “Marathon Monday,” an event that is looked forward to by Boston locals and runners alike. This was the 117th Boston Marathon.

 

“After the second explosion, Scott, my husband John and I looked at each other and knew something terrible was happening. We heard the explosions, a sound I will never forget, and I will never forget the smell. I have been to many fires, but this was not a fire smell. The explosions were so very loud and everybody was like what was that….What just happened?” said Berand.

 

The Berand and Machan family were lucky to not have been one of the families torn apart by this tragedy. The Richard family,  who was waiting for their father to finish the race, was gravely affected by the bombs. His eight-year-old son Martin Richard was killed by the blast, and his daughter and wife were critically injured.

 

Another person killed was Boston University graduate Lu Lingzi, who was waiting for her three friends to finish the race. Her friends were also injured by the explosion, and one even had to have surgery. One nearby college, Emerson, was forced to go into lockdown to keep its students safe; however, the explosions still injured seven of their students.

 

The third person killed was Krystle Campbell, 29, who was watching the race with her friends when the bomb went off.

 

Three people were killed by the acts of terror, 180 were injured, and 30 people are currently in critical condition. Many colleges, including Boston University and Suffolk University, all over Boston are holding vigils to honor the people lost or hurt by the explosions.

The FBI charged two brothers from Russia, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, with the bombing. The entire city of Boston was on lock down as the police sought to arrest the brothers. Tamerlan, 26, died when he suffered fatal injures from multiple gun shots and his brother running him over with a stolen SUV in an attempt to get away from the shoot out with the police early Friday, April 19.

Dzhokhar, 19, although wounded escaped by hiding in someone’s covered boat. He was outside of the police’s search perimeter by a street and a half, and most likely would not have been found had not the boat’s owner noticed the ladder had been moved and blood on the white boat cover.

He reported what he saw to the police, and they confirmed his location by flying overhead in a helicoper, using heat imaging technology to identify that there was indeed a body inside the boat.

The police were afraid that Dzhokhar might have explosives on his body, but they had him surrounded Friday night. Eventually Dzhokhar surrendered and the police immediately drove him to the hospital where he was treated for gunshot wounds and possibly self-inflicted neck wounds.

Since Dzhokhar is charged with detonating a weapon of mass destruction and maliciously destroying public property, federal crimes, he could be facing the death penalty.

Dzhokhar is currently in critical condition.

Friday night, people lined the streets of Cambridge, Mass. cheering the police on as they triumphantly left with Dzhokhar in custody, happy they could sleep safe that night.

 

 

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Too close reading

My Jewish-American novel class recently finished a book called “The World Without You,” by Joshua Henkin, who is the recipient of the 2012 Wallant Book Award at University of Hartford.

Henkin was asked to speak at Uha on April 17, before receiving the award and answering some questions about his book.

Now, I have only been to two other book signings and author Q&A’s, so I do not have a lot of experience with them. Our class read the book a week prior to Henkin’s arrival and then spent the entire week discussing the book. As part of the general education program at Uhart most students are required to take at least one literature course, where they read books and talk about them in class. So, most people here know, professors and students can look really deep into the book for hidden symbolism and metaphors.

Professors usually ask something to the affect of, “What do you think was the author’s purpose for doing such and such?” They then let students give open-ending answers and speculations as to what they think the author was trying to do or say.

In a typical English class, my Professor Patt did just this. We discussed the reasoning for a female dominated story and symbolism behind the name Noelle in a Jewish novel.

Every time we came up with a question, Patt told us to ask Henkin when he did the Q&A, so we all did, but the answers we got were unexpected.

Basically, he said that most of the stuff that we saw was done unintentionally and he did not intend to do that on a symbolic level: that was just not his style.

Many students in the room, including myself, were surprised at his answers, because this is what we have been taught, there is meaning in every detail, we just have to find it and analyze it.

Most of the books we read in school are written by authors who are no longer alive, so we do not have the opportunity to ask them, “What did you mean by having Hester Prynne wear the letter A?” or “What does the fish symbolize in ‘The Old Man and the Sea?’”

Yes, it is important to think critically about the works we read and not glaze over the material, but sometimes I wonder if we read too much into books when analyzing or discussing them in class. Based on the Q&A with Henkin and some other authors in the past, I have to think no. Sometimes a name is just a name, or a color just a color and nothing more. By assuming that everything means something, scholars make everything meaningless.

The parts the authors actually stress as symbolic or metaphorical might get lost if we try to see meaning in every minute detail. I know I do this myself. I miss the obvious critical details in a book, because I think it is too obvious and not deep enough.

Every book has some sort of message to it and although students and professors might be tempted to always be “looking beyond the surface level” to what is underneath, we miss out on other important elements, like character interactions and the overall theme.

In my experience, some professor failed to give me an understanding of the book we read overall, because they would get too caught up in looking at the little details that they forgot to give an overview of the entire novel.

I think this method can discourage students who have a difficult time identifying the “little details” in a book and make them feel inadequate and lost. Effective teachers and professors use both the inductive, detail to theory, and deductive, broad to detail, methods when teaching. The professors, who implement the inductive approach, sometimes can get so caught up in looking at the individual components of a novel, that they never get to the theory part- or what do all these pieces mean?

So, next time you feel lost in the facets of the book you are studying in class, do not be afraid to ask the professor about the general meaning of the book, because that may be the only thing the author really intended you to glean from the novel.

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Presidential Presence: Over 3,000 turnout for speech

President Barack Obama addressed the student, faculty, staff, Connecticut and Federal  legislature, Sandy Hook guest crowd to push for “common sense” measures for Federal gun legislation.

President Barack Obama addressed the student, faculty, staff, Connecticut and Federal
legislature, Sandy Hook guest crowd to push for “common sense” measures for Federal gun legislation.

University of Hartford hosted one of biggest events on campus Monday that got everyone on campus and the Hartford community excited and filled with school pride.

On Friday, April 5, students waited in line for hours in hopes to get tickets to see President Obama, which sold out in just 23 minutes, and again on Monday April 8 to get into the Sports Center.

In fact, so many people wanted to get in to see the President that 200 people with tickets were told they were unable to attend by the Secret Service and the Fire Marshall, after waiting in line for hours on Friday and again on Monday, which is an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise smooth event according to University President Walter Harrison.

The event began at 2:30 p.m. when people could begin to be seated in the Sports Center, which took about two hours total.

At 4:30 p.m. senior pastor of Newtown Congregational Church Rev. Matthew Crebbin performed an invocation for the event, mainly praying for the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary and hopes for future safety of our nation from guns.

Immediately after the prayer, Student Government President Maria Arroyo led the Pledge of Allegiance , followed by University of Hartford alumna Aja Wilson, who sang the national anthem.

Then the audience waited for an additional hour, with plenty of false applause alarms, for the President’s arrival. Around 5:15 p.m. Conn. Governor Dannel Malloy announced that the President was in the building and said how happy his was that Obama was coming to congratulate Connecticut’s on its new progressive gun laws.

Nicole and Ian Hockley introduced the President at 5:45 p.m. and told their story of the loss of their son Dylan, 6, in the Sandy Hook shooting.

After they finished, the 44th President Barack Obama stepped up to the podium to first thank Nicole and Ian and the University of Hartford for being there. He also thanked Conn. lawmakers for passing the new gun laws and our governor for signing the bill.

Everyone in the room was brimming with excitement and clapped so loud that it was hard to hear what the President was saying at many points during his speech. At various points during Obama’s 25 minute speech on pushing for new federal gun laws, students would say, “I love you Obama!” He responded with, “And I appreciate that.”

In his speech, Obama advocated the introduction of universal background checks in order to seal up current loopholes as part of “common sense” gun laws.

He said, “And every single one of those states — including here in Connecticut — decided that, yes, we can protect more of our citizens from gun violence while still protecting our Second Amendment rights.  Those two things don’t contradict each other.  (Applause.)  We can pass common-sense laws that protect our kids and protect our rights.” He also said that he wants a ban on military style assault weapons and an increase in help available to mentally unstable people.

Obama’s parting words were, “So let’s do the right thing.  Let’s do right by our kids.  Let’s do right by these families.  Let’s get this done.  Connecticut, thank you.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.”

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Kermit Poling composes upcoming Snow White Ballet

Gabrielle Collins, a junior in West Hartford, will be starring as Snow White in the ballet. Courtesy of the Hartt School

Gabrielle Collins, a junior in West Hartford, will be starring as Snow White in the ballet. Courtesy of the Hartt School

 

Over the summer, Hartt Community Division will be performing the ballet Snow White on June 14 in the Millard Auditorium.

Snow White will feature 154 dancers ranging from ages five years old to 17 years old from the Hartt Community Division Pre-Professional, Foundation and Children’s Ballet programs along with original music composed by Kermit Poling.

Poling has been the Music Director of the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet and the South Arkansas Symphony for 27 years and has toured the U.S. as musician and a conductor.

Named one of the top 10 people to watch by Forum Magazine, Poling is also an international conductor and has performed in Italy, Mexico and China.

In 2000, Poling was rewarded for his achievements with the Outstanding Artist in Music Fellowship and in 2012 he received a Career Advancement Award from Louisiana.

Recently, Poling has composed music for the Phantom of the Opera, Aladdin, Tarzan, and Snow White, which originally premiered in 2003.

Poling will be traveling to Hartt to conduct a live orchestra himself.

Samantha Duster, who is the Artistic Director and Chair of the Dance Department at the Hartt Community Division since 2011, is choreographing the fairy tale.

Previously, Duster taught at the Orlando Ballet School and received her training from the National Ballet of Cuba, where she earned her teaching diploma.

Before choreographing Snow White, Duster was asked to produce a world premier of Camelot in 2004.

The three soloists are Kathryn Manger, from Conn., Gabrielle Collins, 16, who play the role of Snow White, and Eddy Tovar, a Cuban native, who plays the prince.

Mananger dances with the Hartt School Community Division located in Hartford. In the semi-finals of the Youth America Grand Prix in 2012, she was in the top 12. Manger has participated in plays such as The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Sleeping Beauty Suite.

Gabrielle Collins, who is a student of the Hartt Community Division, started training at age six.

In 2012, she won the bronze medal in the Connecticut Classic Ballet Compeition. The following year, she won the silver medal.

Tovar, who was born in Cuba, trained at a ballet school in Havanna. He is a current faculty member in the Hartt Community Division. He has performed ballet galas internationally including countries such as Japan, Canada, Argentina and Latvia. He also performed in the show, “So You Think You Can Dance.” The first performance is Friday June 14 at 7 p.m., followed by one on Saturday June 15 also at 7 p.m. with a matinee on Sunday June 16 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase on April 20 through the University Box Office and $20 for students, $30 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under.

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Not seeing: not afraid of the future

Professor Gregory Babel helps Rory Orwoll learn a new song in his beginner piano class.

Professor Gregory Babel helps Rory Orwoll learn a new song in his beginner piano class.

 

Orwoll playing the piano. He can also play the bass and guitar.

Orwoll playing the piano. He can also play the bass and  the guitar.

“They said, ‘Oh you’re not going to remember it, and if you do it’s only going to be a dream.’ No, that’s not how it worked. It hurt a lot. The entire time I could feel them cutting into my eye…It was pretty painful,” said Rory Orwoll, 18, concerning the latest surgery he had to attempt to restore his lost vision. Two times the doctors have removed a membrane that grows behind his left eye, the only eye he can see out of, and three times it has grown back, leaving Orwoll blind in his first year of college at the Hartt School of Music.

As Orwoll, a Plesantville, NY native, began the account of the problems he’s had with his sight, he said, “I’ve told the story thousands of times since coming here.” Although, he’s always had problems with his vision since he was born, including a right eye that never worked and calcium build up on his left eye that had to be surgically removed every so often, he was never completely blind until he was almost 17 years old.

“The summer before my junior year in high school I got a surgery to get a Kpro, which is a prosthetic cornea, which actually gave me the best vision I ever had. I didn’t need glasses. I always used to wear thick glasses. I still had bad vision, but it was the best I had seen in my entire life…It was nice not needing to wear glasses. I could see everything in detail, more so than I could before. That was pretty cool.”

What was supposed to be the cure to his bad vision, turned into what would be for anyone a waking nightmare: losing ones sight slowly over a six month period of time. Orwoll decided not to go sight seeing after he got the Kpros, because he had no idea things would take a turn for the worse. “I didn’t expect at all to lose my sight, so I didn’t see the rush,” said Orwoll.

“Then sometime in late Dec., early Jan., scar tissue from that surgery started causing my retina to detach. In early March of that year, I got a surgery to try to reattach my retina, which worked except after that surgery I still couldn’t see because my eye filled with blood and debris and a membrane grew behind my cornea.

“So then in either June or July, I had another surgery to get that removed then after that surgery another membrane grew behind my cornea. I think the doctors think that if they can remove it, it shouldn’t grow back again. I really lost my sight a little more than a month before I turned 17.”

Neither Orwoll nor the doctors knew what was going on. “It happened slowly. I started noticing effects in Dec…then Jan. I started noticing it more. Over the course of Jan. and Feb. my vision slowly started to get worse. For a while the docs didn’t know why I was losing my vision,” said Orwoll.

After 10 eye surgeries, some done while he was still conscious, Orwoll lost some of his hope. During winter break, Orwoll went to see if he could get an 11th surgery to remove the membrane, but the doctors said his eye wasn’t ready yet. They said they might be able to perform an in-house surgery during spring break in just a little over a week.

Orwoll isn’t getting his hopes up. “I would have to get the operation and see how well my retina will work,” said Orwoll. After a retina is not in use for so long, it is not used to detecting light, so it will be a while after the surgery before any sort of real vision beyond light and dark is restored.

His friends feel differently.

Orwoll was sitting on a bench outside of B complex on a nice day whistling an interesting tune, when Kyle Burgman, 18, who was walking to his dorm, stopped to listen. Burgman complimented Orwoll on his whistling and introduced himself. That was five months ago and from then on, they have been best buds. Going to parties in the Village, hanging out in Burgman’s dorm, listening to classics like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and watching television together. “On Friday and Saturday nights, he’s my wingman. His story is an instant conversation starter,” said Burgman.

Burgman plans a big event for when Orwoll gets his sight back. “Once he gets his vision back. We’re going to give him a list of names and line up and have him guess who everyone is. There’s probably about 40 to 50 people on campus Rory knows well,” said Burgman, who predicts Orwoll will do better than what people think. Burgman continued, “He has a good way of gauging the race, gender, and body size of people based on the sound of their voice.”

People that know Orwoll describe him as an extremely witty and brilliant person. Hartt professor Gregory Babal said, “He has a great ear, but I have to treat him a little differently. I give the rest of these guys sheet music, but I have to walk Rory through it.” Babal continued, “He’s a really good student though.” During class, Babal placed his hands next to Orwoll’s on the keyboard. He spoke and played each note in the song and had Orwoll copy him until he could do it on his own.

UHart has helped Orwoll adjust to being blind; by using the facilities he’s become healthier and happier according to Burgman. “He’s gotten a lot better. Orwoll used to be really skinny. He’s eating more and working out almost everyday, which has helped him to put on weight. He’s in a good mood now,” said Burgman. The university also provides readers for Orwoll during tests and early registration so he can get his pick of classes.

“People are always giving you a lot more help than you need.  At the same time, there are also times when I’m completely lost, no one is there and I’m like damn I wish someone was around to help. Beggars can’t be choosers. If you want some help, you got to deal with constantly getting help that you don’t need,” said Orwoll about needing help from others.

Orwoll thinks of himself as a typical student by starting out the morning just trying to wake up, then going to class and working out in the Sports Center with his best friend.

Orwoll is not currently in a band at UHa, but he talks about starting one to his friends all the time.

From here, Orwoll refuses to think small about his future and won’t let his lack of sight hold him back.

“I think my sister and I are going to move to Brooklyn and start a folk band, and a few years later we want to move to LA or somewhere in southern California,” said Orwoll in regards to his plans after he graduates from Hartt.

Although Orwoll tries to focus on the silver lining, his thoughts on the gift of sight makes us all a little more thankful for what we have. “Really the bad thing is about going blind is not about the practical uses of seeing. I really could live with or without that. It’s enjoying the beauty in life that I miss.”

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Sex, innuendos, television: How comedy is changing

“Thank you, we really need to fill this order,” said Caroline Channing played by Beth Behrs on the CBS comedy “2 Broke Girls.”  “I’ll stay and help. I also had something to fill, but I’ll just text Sophie and tell her I’m working,” retorted Oleg, played by actor Jonathan Kite, who is known on the show for his witty, but highly sexual retorts.

The hit show was nominated for three 2012 Emmy Awards and won an award for “Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series”.

According to TV by the Numbers, 2 Broke Girls scored a 7.1 rating in adults age 18 to 49. However, it has been repeatedly criticized by reviewers like the Washington Post and the New Yorker for its racist and sexual jokes that are prevalent throughout the show.

Shows that originated prior to the 1990’s, were much less sexual in nature. In fact, while watching the show “Cheers,” you really have to listen to pick up on any sexual references whatsoever.

The closest thing I could find was a joke that was still funny,but didn’t mention STD’s, hand jobs, oral or condoms, a rarity today.

“Excuse me. Attractive? I didn’t know you thought I was attractive,” said Sam from the popular 1980’s show Cheers. “Well, you know, when the light strikes you in a certain way, and your hair is combed just right and I’m standing back a ways. You’re sometimes unrepugnant,” responded female lead Diane. “Yeah, that’s what women call me, tall, dark, and unrepugnant,” said Sam exasperated.

Jokes like these actually require the viewer to have a baseline level of intelligence and vocabulary to understand the humor, which is part of what makes it so funny, even today.

Nowadays, you could be in the other room with the television on in the background and still catch a joke about sex or hear an allusion to it.

“You’re getting me wet,” said Behrs in the pilot episode of 2 Broke Girls to her roommate Max Black’s boyfriend, who had just emerged from the shower, scantily clad in a towel and nothing else. Boyfriend Rob responded with, “That’s the point.”

Maybe when you were younger, it offended you, or you wished the jokes were a little cleaner, but now you just sit back, chuckle and wait for the next raunchy joke.

Has this increased sexualization of the media changed the kind of jokes television utilizes during the brief 21 minutes episodes? Have writers forgotten what good clean jokes are and only focused on getting ratings through cheap sexy jokes?

Communication professor at University of Hartford Lynne Kelly said, “[There has been a] big change in language. People say stuff that they would not have said before. People have long conversations about penises. [Television shows] have gotten more risqué.”

“I don’t know where the line is now. I feel like they always push the lines. I think sexuality will continued to be implied, not shown. Obviously, no full frontal nudity,” continued Kelly.

The direction that television is headed, always pushing the line on what is and isn’t appropriate, I don’t think there will ever be shows that are just “good clean fun” and free from overly sexual content.

Right now, you probably don’t give a damn about seeing sex implied on television or hearing crude sex jokes, but maybe ten years down the line, when you have little kids and you’re just settling into to watch your favorite show, you don’t want your kids to ask you what a three way is.

There should be prime time television shows out there that you wouldn’t be afraid to watch with your grandmother or a young child. However, television writers don’t think that 21st century Americans care about non dirty jokes; that they won’t find it as funny as jokes about having sex with your best friend or girl on girl experimentation in college.

Remember, when it comes to television, it’s all about the ratings. If people don’t like it, it gets cancelled, because the network thinks the show isn’t being well received.

So, if by some micracle there is a show out there with minimal sexual references and it’s funny, watch it.

Then maybe in the future, when we have kids, there will actually be shows out there we can let them watch.

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Headaches that come with buying cars

On Monday I walked into Balise Toyota at 2 p.m. and on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. I was driving my dream car, a Prius, home.

A lot happened in those two days and for a long time working up to the big day. I began the journey to getting a new car over two years ago, when I first began researching the steps that go into purchasing one.

Despite all of this preparation ahead of time, I realized I was still wildly unprepared when it came down to signing on the dotted line.

The first thing I did was look at the requirements to getting approved for a car loan. Credit is what you need, and a lot of it. If you don’t understand how credit is rated I can explain. A really good credit score is 800, and a bad one is 200. The better credit you have the lower your APR stands for annual percentage rate, which is the percent of interest your leanholder charges you each year for your car.

APR can be as low as .05 percent and as high as 23 percent all depending on your credit.

Business manager of Balise Toyota Emmanuel Avgoustakis suggests that after making a year’s worth of payments on the car, refinance the car with a different bank in order to lower your monthly payments for the rest of the duration of the loan.

So how do you get your credit up, or have any credit at all? Well, a lot of factors affect credit, but basically the bank wants to see that you pay off all your debt on time, which includes student loans. Also, it couldn’t hurt to open a few store cards, make purchases and pay them off right away.

When I started school, I took out a $2,000 unsubsidized Stafford loan to build credit, and then I opened up an Aerie and Macy’s store card.

From there I also got approved for a Target card, which I use and make monthly payments after I buy things. The better credit you have, the higher credit limit you’ll have, so you can spend even more money. However, if you pay off all your cards, this will increase your credit to debt ratio, which you want to be fairly low.

Building your credit doesn’t happen over night. Like I said, I’ve been building my credit up since 2011,so it’s definitely a process. Unfortunately, it doesn’t just take good credit to buy a car, you also have to have this thing called a “full time job” in order to get approved.

Since as a college student that can be a really difficult thing to fit into your schedule, you probably won’t be able to get approved that is why most people our age need a cosigner to get approved for a car.

A cosigner could be a close family member or friend of the family, who would be willing to put themselves out on a limb into order for you to get a car.

My situation is unique as I am married, so my husband was my cosigner, because he works more than I do. Our two incomes put together goes a lot farther than just mine or his.

The rule of thumb is, in order to afford car payments, your weekly paycheck should be the amount of the payment or more. For instance, if the car payment was $250 a month, you should make at least $250 a week in order to be able to make the payments on time.

If someone else is helping you pay and cosigning for you, this is not as necessary, but you don’t want to be scrambling each month to come up with the money, then have your car repossessed.

The last thing that affects APR is down payment. Down payments lower the price of the car and therefore the monthly payments will be cheaper. The APR could be higher if you decide you can’t afford to put any money down. Now, it all depends on the cost of the car, but a good range is $1,000 to $5,000 down on a car in order to get the lowest APR.

Obviously, this isn’t an exhaustive lost of factors that affect APR, I’m just listing the most important ones that you should know.

Next is the fun part: the research.

What are you looking for in a car: roomy interior, cheap cost, safety, fuel efficiency?

Decide what’s most important to you then look for cars that match your needs. I commute to school from about half hour away, so I spend all of the money I earn on gas, literally.

So, since I knew that fuel efficiency was really important to my needs, I deciding on getting a hybrid, and I ended up getting a Prius, which gets 51 mpg in the city and 48 mpg on the highway.

Even though I doubled checked my credit before I went to the dealership, I was really nervous everything was going to go wrong, and truth be told it did. Basically, I learned that you can’t prepare for absolutely every possible scenario and something you won’t think will be a problem at all, will be.

While I was at the dealership, I had a headache, my back was killing me, and my stomach kept churning over and over, but it was completely worth it when the very next day I drove out with my dream car.

The feel was indescribable, and I hope it can happen for you too.

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