The first car you drive alone will be gone someday. The feeling of the first ride won’t.

A first solo drive is one of the few moments where you can feel your own life getting wider. The car has a much shorter life than the feeling does, and what you actually keep is the sense of being trusted with something. That stays available long after the thing is scrap.

When something happens to you for the first time, tell yourself plainly that this is the first one. Naming it is most of what makes it findable years later.