Studying for your CPA? Good luck!

(I'm a CPA also... living the high life... :sigh:)

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Warning, wall of text ahead:

I have a similar story to you OP, although no drinking or frat parties involved in mine. At the point where I traded my old car for my FR-S, I was at a pretty depressed stage of my life. I was doing literally nothing with my life besides idly floating through work then going home and playing video games (1200 hours in Skyrim!).

The FR-S was sort of an impulse buy (well, my old '94 Avalon was on its last legs so I needed a new car anyways). Now at the time I knew mostly zilch about cars (and I still don't know that much :bonk:) so I was thinking of maybe getting a Corolla or something similarly boring. Then I saw the FR-S and fell in love.

I was really dedicated to getting a FR-S - entered the first 86 contest, was on wait lists since before the car was officially released, drove my Avalon with non-functioning air conditioning and intermittently functioning windows through the whole summer while waiting for my FR-S (it got so hot in that thing that my phone would shut off due to overheating)...

Finally, at the end of November 2013 I finally was able to buy my baby, and a few weeks later I started looking into modding my FR-S (nothing fancy, mostly cosmetics and audio). But at the same time, I didn't really drive for fun all that much... not the car's fault, I was just still going through the motions of work and video games.

Around three months after I got the car I was doing some more research on mods and had an epiphany. "I have a cool car now," I thought. "I should be cool to match it." (Yeah, I'm lame, I know.)

I started going out more and driving the twisties for fun... started lovingly hand washing my baby every one or two weeks... finally learned how gears work and started spending 99% of my time in manual mode... and as I started getting more confidence in my ability to actually *drive* and enjoy and take pride in my car, I think that reflected in taking pride in my life as well.

I began eating right and working out, have dropped around 40 pounds over the past year and added some muscle. I stopped just going through the motions at work and actually tried to better myself, and I think I'm in line for a fat raise and possible promotion this year. I started dating again and met an amazing girl... and she loves my car also and makes me drive her along back roads and such. And every time I drive my car now, it's with a stupid grin on my face. I feel like I'm much happier now and in a better place, and have grown so much as a person since I bought my FR-S.

Well, except for the occasional bout with irresponsible manic driving on public roads. :burnrubber:

I've seen ya around Berkeley a few times. There's a guy with an M3 that has the plate "MLFHNTR"