The Supercars We Dream About

I came across this article:
Top 20 Most Popular Imported Cars by Make and Type, Plus Used-Car Prices

It included a ranking titled Top 3 Dream Supercar Brands. Here’s how the brands placed:

1st: Ferrari
2nd: Lamborghini
3rd: Porsche

That got me thinking about M, a classmate from my university seminar. Back then, he used to say with real passion, “One day, I’m going to buy a Ferrari!”

M’s Dream of Buying a Ferrari

M came from a well-to-do family: his father was a school principal, and his mother was a preschool teacher. He was a polite, grounded young man with a bit of a sheltered upbringing. The cautious type, M landed a job at a bank after graduation, steadily moved up the ranks, got married, and had two children. From the outside, it looked like he was following a textbook path to a successful life.

I ran into M the other day for the first time in years.

It turned out he’d left the bank to work for the prefectural government.(From one very buttoned-up workplace to an even more buttoned-up one…) It sounded like he’d had his share of challenges, but all in all, he seemed to be doing well. So I asked him:

Me: “By the way, remember how you said back in college that you were going to buy a Ferrari? How’s that going?”
M: “Oh, come on. There’s no way I can do that. I’m a civil servant.”

Being a civil servant doesn’t mean he can’t buy one. He might change jobs again, for all we know. I’d say the odds are fifty-fifty. Don’t say something so boring, my friend. Besides, we’re still young.(We’re already well into our forties, but I still feel like I’m in my late twenties.)

Just then, M came back with this:

M: “Were you into cars back in college?”
Me: “Not really. I got into them because of my husband.”
M: “Do you drive now?”
Me: “Yeah.”
M: “What do you drive?”
Me: “A Panamera.”
M: “A-a-a Panamera?! ((((；ﾟДﾟ))))!!(Like “P-p-p-Puffy”? That reference is showing its age.)”

I tried to tell him, “Hey, I didn’t buy it—my husband did. I’m not the impressive one here!” But he didn’t hear a word. His eyes lit up as he asked, “That’s so cool! Where do you take your Panamera?”

“Hmm, I drive it every day, but mostly to pick up my daughter from preschool and go to the co-op. Sometimes I take the highway for work.” At that, he looked as if his soul had left his body and said:

“…What? That’s a waste of a-mera.”

A waste of a-mera? I couldn’t tell whether M had just made a clever pun or a terrible one, but his enthusiasm dropped through the floor.

Me: “But my goal is to buy a Panamera with my own money. So come on, let’s work toward that Ferrari.”
M: “I told you, it’s impossible. A minivan is plenty for me.”

…and that was the end of the conversation.

Still, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to buy one, but there’s no guarantee you won’t, either. You can come up with endless reasons why something can’t be done. Life has to be more interesting if you focus instead on figuring out how to make it happen. The dreams we had as students may have seemed unrealistic at the time, but there’s something cool about continuing to chase those big, seemingly impossible dreams well into adulthood.

People might say, He’s a dreamer. But if you eventually reach your goal, they’ll turn around and say, “He actually went and did it!” And suddenly, the whole story changes. I’ll do more than just talk, too—so come on, let’s give it another shot, my friend.

These days, I find myself vaguely remembering that conversation from time to time.