Amy W - writer, NYC

When my mother got her first job as a first grade teacher just after graduating from college, she used her first paycheck to put a down payment on a racing green MG convertible. In the subsequent 45 years, she has always owned a convertible, even as safer, more family-friendly cars came and went in our driveway and our family's garage. I think that years from now, decades from now, when I think of my mother, I will see her this way: behind the wheel, blond hair blown back by the wind, sunglasses on, cool, contained, and on the open road in a universal symbol of freedom.