He should have gone with a Nissan.

There are very key elements to answering this question that are left out from our description. For example, did Grace offer for Vern to keep the old parts of his car after every part was replaced? Or did she simply keep the parts without asking? In a normal situation, the mechanic asks the owner of the car if they would like to keep the piece or not. If this happened in Vern’s situation, then the answer is much clearer.

If Grace asked Vern whether or not he’d like to keep the old parts of his car and Vern said no, then he’s given up ownership of the parts and whatever Grace would like to do with them. They are no longer ‘his’, and if Grace keeps them all and makes a new-old car out of them, then it still doesn’t belong to Vern. His Volvo would be the one comprised of the new parts, which he paid for each time, and we live in a world where ‘If I pay for it then it’s mine.’

That would mean that the Volvo itself changed with the first new piece that Grace fixed. It was still Vern’s car, but it was Vern’s Volvo enhanced version. But the second that Vern turned down the old part, he gave up any claim to it, and therefore the heap of parts cannot be his car.

However, if Grace never offered the old parts to Vern, and simply kept them without telling him (which is a little creepy when you think about it too hard), then ownership still belongs to him. Those parts belonged to the original car that Vern signed off on at the dealership years ago, and he paid for those parts. Not directly, but they came with the car that he paid for on a whole.

Well, if Vern never offered up the parts of his car, and still bought new parts, which car is 'Vern's Volvo'? The car he drives. He paid for each part, and that created a new vehicle of new parts. It belongs to Vern, because each part belongs to Vern individually. The parts that are in Grace's garage that she's been collecting are just pieces of an 'old' car, but not it doesn't make up Vern's car. All the parts are there, but the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Vern doesn't drive that pile of car parts. He doesn't use it on an everyday basis, and it's not practical to him. The car of new parts is his car, just not in the same condition as when he originally bought it.

"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions." -Augusten Burroughs

Knowing yourself is something that has layers to it. You can't just know your hair color or eye color or date of birth. Knowing yourself is much deeper than that, and it’s not something anyone can teach you. Knowing yourself means you know your likes and dislikes, you know your faults, you know your strengths and appreciate them for what they are. Knowing yourself means you accept you aren’t perfect, but you can still appreciate the qualities you have. Knowing yourself, most importantly, means knowing your limits. People who push themselves to strive to be something they cannot do not really know themselves. Accepting your limits and knowing when you’ve truly done all you can do to the best of your ability is the key to knowing yourself.

My worst quality is one that has plagued all kinds of relationships in my life: my inability to trust. I have many friends, and a few close friends, and still I find it hard to trust them with secrets, possessions, or even their stories. I have this suspicious air about me often, and usually assume people are lying to me. I don’t know when or why this quality came about, but it has, and now I must learn to deal with it. I do so by trying my best to believe others. I remind myself that not everyone is a liar, and that most people tend not to. I started small, trusting only a few very close friends and family, and believe that, as they have proven trustworthy, I can breach out and be more trusting of others. Of course, I don’t think I’ll be going around spewing my life story at strangers, but I try not to be so closed-off to the world, and more eager to make and actually trust my friends.

I believe one of my best qualities (although this may seem a bit ironic) is how trustworthy I am. And many people seem drawn to this, telling me things about them after having known them for just a short while. I’ve had people treat me as a shoulder to lean on, a shoulder to cry on, or just someone to talk to, like an amateur psychologist. I never spill secrets to others, knowing from my own feelings about how hard it is to maintain someone’s trust. I pride myself in being a confidant. Unless I feel someone is in danger of hurting his or herself, (it’s happened) or being hurt by someone else (hasn’t happened, thankfully), I keep peoples’ secrets to myself. I’m honored that they’d trust me with useless information (who likes who, who said what about who, normal high school drama), and intend to keep it that way. There’s nothing in it for me in spilling other secrets. And when I trust so little, I feel it’s important for me to be trustworthy, or else I’d feel like a hypocrite.

It’s hard to talk about my strengths and weaknesses because I’m only 17 years old. I haven’t fully developed in brain or body, and how can you ‘know’ something that’s unfinished? I don’t know who I’ll be in ten years or even five years. I don’t know what college I’m going to or what my major will be or who I’ll end up living with… And with that much mystery in my life, I don’t think it’s possible to fully know myself, or fully know my strengths, weaknesses, abilities and limits. So I’ve told of my strengths and weaknesses now. I think you should ask this again in five years. And then in ten.