A Letter To My First Car

We all remember our first car, and although few of us still have it — even fewer of us probably were thoughtful enough to tell that car how we felt about it. But Kelcie Moseley did just that at Thought Catalog. Here's the letter she sent. Write your own in the comments below :

Dear Car,

I have owned you since my junior year of high school, which was a full six years ago. You were everything I wanted — cute, affordable, approved by my mother and, most importantly, you were a car. That's all I really cared about.

But I didn't know you would become such a symbol of the past six years of my life. When we first met, I was a shadow of the girl who drives you now. And now it has come time for us to part ways; time to close that chapter of my life and start anew with one of those young whippersnappers who doesn't yet know how to be as faithful and loyal as you have been. But I can't trade you in tomorrow before telling you a few things.

Thank you for getting me to and from school every day, to a place I hated with people I loved. Thank you for safely transporting them with me wherever we chose to go, and for tolerating our loud music and awful singing. And for believing me when I thought they would all be my friends forever.

Thanks for letting me dance like an idiot when a boy asked me out for the first time, and for letting me cry on your steering wheel when he told me we were better as friends. And I know there was really nothing you could do, but why'd you let me make out with those boys I didn't like who weren't right for me? Couldn't you have given me a hint or something? I guess you offered reflections of me in your mirrors. Maybe I just chose not to see.

For accompanying me on my soul-searching year in California, I can never truly express my gratitude. That year changed my life in more ways than I can count, and if it weren't for you braving Sacramento traffic with me for an hour each day, listening to me sob over getting lost, and bringing me to the job I detested, I wouldn't have found my way to where I am now. You stretched yourself for thousands of miles so I could figure myself out.

In the last few years of our time together, you've watched me change the most. You took me from Sacramento to Idaho, but we both know you took me much further than that. You led me to my career, to lifelong friends, to a person I truly love, and to an organization I will never forget. You brought me to my future, regardless of where it goes from here.

Thank you for never giving up on me. And please know that I am not giving up on you. I just need you to do me this one last favor and let me close out our chapter.

It's been a wild ride.

This article by Kelcie Moseley originally appeared at Thought Catalog on August 9, 2011. You should follow Thought Catalog on Twitter here.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Dudarev Mikhali

Nürburgring Infographic - aka The Green Hell

We’ve created an infographic with loads of interesting stats and details about the infamous Nürburgring.

Germany’s Nürburgring, nicknamed the Green Hell, is one of the longest and most challenging race tracks in the world. It’s made up of two racetracks - the Nordschleife (Northern Loop), and the Grand Prix Circuit which combined cover over 26km. This makes it the worlds longest permanent racetrack, that is until the Gotland Ring is completed later this year.

It’s a race track, a testing center for new cars, and a is open to public speed junkies for just €26/lap. The Nürburgring is an insanely twisty track with 40 left-hand bends, 50 right-hand bends and a 300m height difference. It’s been described as seeming “as if a reeling, drunken giant had been sent out to determine the route”. Crashes occur daily and there are endless rumours about the number of public fatalities per year.

Deciding on who holds the lap record for a production car is a very debatable subject, determining what counts as a street-legal production car is open to a lot of interpretation. We've gone for what generally seem to be the most accepted records, though do take 'production car' with a pinch of salt. The ring is under danger though, with threats of closing, to support it visit Save the Ring.

We think it’s a monster of a track and are seriously impressed by those who can master it!

Moby : In Lego

Weird Facts ~

1) The "Nobel Prize" medal does not look "NOBLE" - it depicts three naked man with hands on each other shoulders.

2) The brain processes the pain signals, it does not feel any! Plus, the brain is most active when your body is most passive i.e. when you are asleep!

3) It is impossible to cry in space ~ tears cannot flow without gravity. So much so for Space Oddity.

4) Overeating impairs your hearing!

5) Chinese "Fortune Cookies" were invented by Chinese...in America.

6) The appendix organ is a waste of space in the body. It produces some white blood cells but without it, you will live just the same.

7) Don't hold back a sneeze, it can cause death...literally. You may rupture a blood vessel in your neck!

8) Humans are the only creatures who cry out of emotions. Animals do too, out of physiological needs.

9) Even wonder why "clocks" in ads often have a time display of 10.10? This allows room for advertisements right in the middle of it!

10) Your left hand does more typing than your right, even if you are a right hander.

11) The electric chair was invented by an executioner...NOT. A DENTIST!

12) Astronauts must not fart in space...it will ruin their spacesuits!

13) "Brazil Nut" didn't get its name from Brazil, the country. Brazil got its name from the nut!

14) Earth is the only planet not named after a God. And I wonder why this world's full of evil???

15) Contraceptive pills for humans work just the same for gorillas.

16) Marijuana is not nearly as addictive a alcohol, cocaine or nicotine. Ironic?

17) In a USD1 note, there is a tiny picture of an owl on the upper left corner of the note and a little spider in the upper right corner.

18) There is an island in Greek called "Lesbos" and its residents are known as "Lesbosians".

19) "Soda water" has no soda.

20) The "Vintage Date" on a bottle of wine is merely the indication of when the grapes were picked, not the date when it was made or bottled. Duped?

Tribute to Jobs,

1. Do what you love. Jobs once said, "People with passion can change the world for the better." Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, "I'd get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about." That's how much it meant to him. Passion is everything.

2. Put a dent in the universe. Jobs believed in the power of vision. He once asked then-Pepsi President, John Sculley, "Do you want to spend your life selling sugar water or do you want to change the world?" Don't lose sight of the big vision.

3. Make connections. Jobs once said creativity is connecting things. He meant that people with a broad set of life experiences can often see things that others miss. He took calligraphy classes that didn't have any practical use in his life -- until he built the Macintosh. Jobs traveled to India and Asia. He studied design and hospitality. Don't live in a bubble. Connect ideas from different fields.

4. Say no to 1,000 things. Jobs was as proud of what Apple chose not to do as he was of what Apple did. When he returned in Apple in 1997, he took a company with 350 products and reduced them to 10 products in a two-year period. Why? So he could put the "A-Team" on each product. What are you saying "no" to?

5. Create insanely different experiences. Jobs also sought innovation in the customer-service experience. When he first came up with the concept for the Apple Stores, he said they would be different because instead of just moving boxes, the stores would enrich lives. Everything about the experience you have when you walk into an Apple store is intended to enrich your life and to create an emotional connection between you and the Apple brand. What are you doing to enrich the lives of your customers?

6. Master the message. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't communicate your ideas, it doesn't matter. Jobs was the world's greatest corporate storyteller. Instead of simply delivering a presentation like most people do, he informed, he educated, he inspired and he entertained, all in one presentation.

7. Sell dreams, not products. Jobs captured our imagination because he really understood his customer. He knew that tablets would not capture our imaginations if they were too complicated. The result? One button on the front of an iPad. It's so simple, a 2-year-old can use it. Your customers don't care about your product. They care about themselves, their hopes, their ambitions. Jobs taught us that if you help your customers reach their dreams, you'll win them over.

There's one story that I think sums up Jobs' career at Apple. An executive who had the job of reinventing the Disney Store once called up Jobs and asked for advice. His counsel? Dream bigger. I think that's the best advice he could leave us with. See genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your vision, and be constantly prepared to defend those ideas.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach, a popular keynote speaker and author of several books including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His latest is The Power of Foursquare (McGraw-Hill, 2011)