Around Valentine\u2019s Day, I saw a lot of car-loving guys tweeting things like, \u201cI love cars, but I don\u2019t have a girlfriend<\/strong>,\u201d and \u201cHow can I marry a wife who loves cars?<\/strong>\u201d I found myself reading their posts with the amused curiosity of an aunt watching the younger generation and thinking, \u201cSo this is what young people are thinking about these days.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Those tweets got me wondering: What kind of woman should a man marry if he wants to keep loving cars and sharing his life with them, even after marriage?<\/strong> I\u2019ve given it some thought, and today I\u2019d like to share my perspective.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, I wasn\u2019t a car person at all. In fact, I used to believe that you didn\u2019t need a car to live a good life<\/strong>. I thought, \u201cCars cost a lot to own, you can get by without one, public transportation is excellent in the city, and exhaust fumes are bad for the environment. So I don\u2019t need a car.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n But that never meant I wanted my husband to give up his car hobby before we got married, or that I thought he should compromise on cars if he wanted to marry me. I never felt that way.<\/p>\n So why was I, someone who wasn\u2019t into cars, able to tell my husband\u2014who loves cars and road trips\u2014to do what made him happy?<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s because:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve chosen to live a life that makes room for the things I love, so I can understand my husband wanting to do the same.<\/p>\n I may have mentioned this briefly on the blog before, but I started my own business when I was 27. I had no idea what I was doing, and no money, connections, or know-how. Looking back, it was completely reckless! (\u7b11)<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise that my family and the company I worked for were strongly against it.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way you can do it. You\u2019re bound to fail. What will you do with your life if you end up buried in debt?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re doing well at your current company and earning a good salary for your age. Giving all of that up makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n And so on\u2026<\/p>\n My parents, whose relatives were all company employees, were especially worried. They genuinely thought, \u201cHas she finally lost her mind?<\/strong>\u201d and opposed the idea completely. But I couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that if I didn\u2019t do it then, I\u2019d regret it for the rest of my life<\/strong>, so I took the leap. (In the end, I was able to start out with my family\u2019s support.)<\/span><\/p>\n Ten years ago, starting a business wasn\u2019t the trend it is now. It was unusual for a woman in her twenties to go independent, especially in Kansai.<\/strong> At various networking events, people said hurtful things to my face along the lines of, \u201cWomen are always\u2026\u201d That was when I learned firsthand:<\/p>\n The moment you choose a path that goes against conventional wisdom or the route laid out for you, the world can become a much harsher place.<\/p>\n That said, when people criticize me, I tend to get fired up and think, \u201cI\u2019ll show you!<\/strong>\u201d So in a way, it worked in my favor.<\/p>\n After I started my business, I met far more business owners than I had when I was an employee. Unlike the people who had discouraged me, they wholeheartedly supported taking on a challenge. One piece of advice from a mentor who has looked out for me for the past decade has stuck with me:<\/p>\n \u201cSay you want to climb Everest. You need to talk to someone who\u2019s already climbed it. People who\u2019ve never been there will tell you it\u2019s impossible and try to stop you (often out of kindness and concern)<\/span>. But someone who\u2019s climbed it can give you advice on how to get there\u2014and cheer you on. That\u2019s just how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n That made me think, \u201cThat makes so much sense!<\/strong>\u201d From then on, I sought advice from people like that. Before long, nearly everyone around me was a business owner or freelancer.<\/p>\n Many of them were living rich, fulfilling lives, free from conventional expectations and guided by their own choices<\/strong>. The more I saw that, the more I thought, \u201cI want to live that way, too.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, great freedom comes with great responsibility<\/strong>. I worked incredibly hard over those ten years, but in the end, I didn\u2019t get anywhere near what I\u2019d set out to achieve\u2014and I ran out of money, too.\uff08\u7b11\uff09<\/p>\n Do I regret it? Not at all. It felt like the kind of lesson you get in a Dragon Quest-style life philosophy:<\/p>\n Even if a powerful enemy defeats you, you can start over at the church. You may lose your money, but you keep the experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I gained experiences that will stay with me for life, so I\u2019m truly glad I took that first step.<\/p>\n And I\u2019m deeply grateful to my husband, who has given me the space to pursue what I want wholeheartedly in every sense\u2014even after we got married and had children.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, I also discovered that I love writing<\/strong> and may have a knack for expressing ideas to a wide audience<\/strong>. I changed the way I ran my company, began taking my Porsche blog seriously, and that\u2019s how I got to where I am today.<\/p>\n That was a long preamble, but here\u2019s the point: I believe in living according to your own values rather than society\u2019s expectations<\/strong>. So I\u2019m completely fine with my husband loving cars\u2014even being absolutely obsessed with them<\/strong>. In fact, the more passionate he is, the more he can excel, and the more interesting life becomes. Why not?<\/p>\n When you take a different path from the people around you, you\u2019re bound to hear things\u2014and face some headwinds.<\/p>\n Even so, we only get one life. I choose to live my own rather than someone else\u2019s expectations. I think my husband feels the same way, so I want him to treasure what he loves and what he wants to do\u2014and enjoy it to the fullest.<\/p>\n That said, it matters a lot that my husband understands the balance between freedom and responsibility<\/strong>. He\u2019ll say things like:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll work hard and earn enough so the cars don\u2019t put a strain on our household budget.\u201d Honestly, I think that kind of consideration is important. (I\u2019m not the kind of wife with the patience to support a husband who does whatever he wants without considering anyone else. lol)<\/span><\/p>\n So, to return to the original question: What kind of woman should a man marry if he wants to keep loving cars and sharing his life with them after marriage?<\/strong> Of course, marrying a woman who loves cars herself would be ideal\u2014but there probably aren\u2019t many of them\u2026 (\u7b11)<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s better to look at it another way:<\/p>\n Look for someone who understands the importance of living your own life\u2014someone who cares more about who they want to be than about what everyone else considers normal.<\/p>\n If you meet and marry someone like that, maybe you can keep cars at the heart of your life after marriage, too. Of course, it may not be quite that simple\u2014but lately, that\u2019s what this auntie has been thinking. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why I Love Twitter Lately, I\u2019ve become more of a Twitter person than a Facebook person. Both platforms have their appeal, of course, but I feel that Twitter reveals more of people\u2019s true selves and unfiltered emotions than Facebook does. That makes it entertaining to browse\u2014and often sparks ideas from a different perspective. (Though there\u2019s plenty of misinformation posted just to get people sharing it.) Around Valentine\u2019s Day, I saw a lot of car-loving guys...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/?p=9521","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nocar-nolife","en-US"],"yoast_head":"It\u2019s Okay to Love Cars<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nWhen I Was 27<\/h3>\n
Live Your Own Life<\/h3>\n
If You Love Cars, Who Should You Marry?<\/h3>\n
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\n\u201cI don\u2019t like housework and don\u2019t want to do it, but I\u2019ll help make it easier by investing in time-saving appliances and services.\u201d<\/p>\n
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