I wasn’t a total automotive neophyte. I mean, I had driven rental cars all over France and Italy. During summer and winter holidays each year I had returned to the US and trafficked New York State’s highways and byways often enough.

And I had owned vehicles practically since the day I received my driver’s license as a teenager. But American car culture had perceptibly evolved since I moved to Paris four years ago. Something had changed. Something was different in me, in everyone else, or perhaps in both.

Okay, we all know that “being American” and “owning an automobile” are effectively synonymous. And I would have to have lived in a bubble to overlook the current trend, er… obsession with “bigger is better” automobiles in the US. But my regular visits and relative familiarity with current consumer patterns did little to prepare me for the turbulent re-entry I would experience as I readjusted to the American automotive mentality after my stint as an expat.

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At last I could relax. And I did. Ever since, I’ve been flooded with the simple satisfaction of having my own

transportation once again. Being the captain of my own ship has brought back nostalgic memories of my first car, my first license, and my first driving experiences. Not unlike the feeling you have when you get your first bicycle as a young child. Or the first time you ride that bike on the road. The world fills with possibilities. I am free to wander and explore on my own terms, to get lost, to discover, to pull off a country road next to a stream for a half hour of fly-fishing in the late afternoon. I find myself relishing so many of the pleasures I’ve so easily (and so often) scoffed at over the past several years.

For better or for worse, I had been lulled into a somewhat European perspective on automobiles. Perhaps cars are a largely unnecessary luxury, better used sparingly or at least with restraint. But my return to the US and re-submersion in our American car culture has reminded me of the satisfaction of owning a vehicle, the freedom that possessing and driving my very own car gives me. Sounds shallow? Arguably. But unabashedly true.

Let’s face it. Most Americans love cars. And we depend on them. So much more than we can easily explain to our European neighbors so perplexed at, and quick to mock, our car culture. Yet it’s been reassuring to discover that it is possible to have a safe, four wheel drive (actually all wheel drive, to be perfectly accurate) car that gets great gas mileage and that’s compact enough to fit into any parking place I can find. And it’s immensely pleasing to tell people that I purchased the car on eBay, for this company has certainly revolutionized the way we relate to previously owned automobiles by developing and supporting one of the single best recycling operations in existence. And at last, I can offer to drive my friends rather than the other way around. That’s definitely going to make some folks happy.