Lessons on how to kill a car engine

Life lesson No. 1 -- always make sure you have oil in your car.

The day before Thanksgiving I was with a friend, driving on the interstate to her house when my 1994 Toyota Corolla started making this noise like the engine was slamming into the side of my car every time I touched the gas pedal. My friend and I immediately began to freak out as every light on my dashboard began to flash at me. The only reason I saw them was because I moved away the two pictures I had taped to the dashboard.

We made it to her house going about 20 mph and asked her dad to look and see what was wrong with it. I have no clue when it comes to cars. He told me to pop the hood. So I looked around and pulled this little lever thing by my steering wheel. I was so proud of myself for finding it on my own. Then I heard him yell, "not the trunk, the hood!"

He checked the oil by pulling the stick out and wiping it off then putting it back in and removing it once more. The second time he pulled it out it had nothing on it. Even I could figure out that that car was out of oil -- completely.

After calling my father and asking him what to do, we put some oil in it and started to drive it home. After driving it a little bit the noise stopped. So my friend and I decided we would just carry on with our night. We called my dad again to tell him that the car was OK now and that we were going out. Then about three minutes after getting off the phone with him the sound started again. Only this time the car died. We were right in front of McDonald's so we decided to coast into the parking lot to get out of other people's way. We had no oil, no power, and no other choice but to call my dad -- again.

When he got there my dad asked me why I didn't tell him the oil light was on. I had to explain that I had taped a picture over the dashboard oil light, which had probably been on about three months.

He looked very disappointed. He got in my car and drove the loud, screeching, metal on metal, engine-hitting-the-side-sounding car that died every time you pressed the gas, across town to the auto shop. That hourlong journey was not a pleasant one.

The day after Thanksgiving, the mechanics looked at my car and told my father that I had killed it. The following day we went in search of the perfect car: great price, safety features, low insurance, went really fast and looked pretty. I thought a new Mustang fit that bill perfectly, but my dad liked the Honda Civic. But we found a happy medium and now I'm driving a new silver Saturn Ion.

Amber Karnes is a student at Notre Dame Regional High School.