Alakoa... Spirit of the Warrior

If you are familiar with my great reset story, you have heard about how I rolled my Jeep February 2022. If you aren't familiar yet, I share a bit about it on my social media either here or here and in the Amazon international best selling multi-author book Sacred Silver Linings.

Today, I want to share with you the story of my Jeep and the journey I have had with her. At some point over the summer of 2022, I got a wild hair up my ass sideways and decided I was going get a Jeep as a funsies car. There was no stopping me, I had a mission, and a plan. Part of the plan was to find an older Jeep, manual, and rent my SUV on Turo to help pay for Jeep upgrades.

The hunt was on. Living on an island, options can be limited but that was not stopping me. Nope… Early one morning, I was checking Marketplace. There she was!

I reached out to the owner, and he said I could come test drive her in a couple hours.

It was instant love.

She was a 99TJ, they call them the last true Jeep model. A stunning bright blue, straight six, four-liter engine, with a manual transmission. I scrambled to figure out the funds on such short notice, but I HAD to have her. Three days later, I was driving that beautiful beasty home. I was her fourth owner, she definitely needed some love, but she was solid.

I gave her a good scrub, took off her doors and top...It is Maui, she needs to be nakie. Every good Jeep has a name. A name that fits them in a way that is uniquely them. In the midst of some late night reading, I came across the word alakoa, loosely translated from Hawaiian it means Warrior Spirit or Spirit of the Warrior.

I knew Alakoa was her name.

She quickly became my mental health vehicle in so many ways. I often drove her, with no destination in mind, just to clear my head and reset. I knew she was going to be a project, a labor of love, and I was there for it.

I spent hours decorating her for Christmas. Tinsel, garland, bows, antlers, and so much more. Every time I saw her all decorated, I felt so much joy.

One day I decided to drive her to a plant medicine ceremony instead of my SUV. To get there, I had to drive up Haleakela Highway where there is approximately 1500 feel of elevation gain in roughly 9 miles. If you are familiar with Jeeps, especially the older models, they are not exactly knowns for their speed and aerodynamics. So here we are, in my beautiful rusted beast Alakoa going up this steep ass hill in the wind and I start cheering for her. Out Loud. I keep telling her how she can do this, how capable she is, how she can handle this fucking hill and wind…. How fucking proud I am of her….

Mid drive, I had this epiphany, a fucking lightbulb from heaven….

What if I talked to myself the way I talked to my Jeep?

What if I encouraged and cheered for myself the way I did Alakoa?

Mind Blown!

It got me thinking about how I talk to myself vs how I talk to others. How do I let others talk to me.

In those moments, things started shifting for me mentally. Emotionally.

I acknowledge that when I bought her, I knew she needed work. What I did not realize though was the extent of how much work she needed. I had decided not to Turo my SUV and while I loved the Jeep but I no longer had the same confidence in my decision to buy her.

On February 11th, I was headed to another plant medicine ceremony at the same location as before. Drove the Jeep again too. During that ceremony, I sat with the question: do I sell the Jeep or do I keep her and in that space, I got the message that she will be a source of abundance.

Days later, I received a random package in the mail from a friend and in that package was a sheet of affirmation stickers very similar to the affirmations I post daily on my social media stories. One of the stickers said “I am Abundant.” Immediately, I went out and put that bad boy on the center console of Alakoa.

February 17th, I had spent the day working on the same property where the plant medicine ceremonies were held. I was driving home that night when I was in my accident. Long story short… I remember very little outside of flashing lights, recognizing one of my nurses, and reiterating to myself that I was safe. Two days later I woke up in ICU with about a dozen broken bones. Nobody had been notified yet and my precious Alakoa was in the tow yard.

Close friends of mine went to rescue her; she was still drivable. Some body damage, sure, but drivable.

For months, she sat at my house only being driven around the block once by the man I was dating at the time.

Finally, on August 8th, Lions Gate, I decided I was going to clean her up a bit. I am not too proud to admit that I broke down emotionally. I felt all of the fucking feels.

I talked it over that afternoon with my then boyfriend, we agreed that I would drive the Jeep to his house, and he would start doing work on her to get her back together. I had already ordered most of the parts, and he said he had almost all the tools needed. I live at sea level. He lives at 3500 feet. Wouldn’t you know it, my Alakoa once again handled that drive like a champ.

Within days, he started cutting pieces away, drilling, and patching. I ended up having to get Alakoa towed to a shop to be repaired because he left her in pieces, refusing to finish what he started.

So much paralleled irony in that statement between Alakoa and I.

The shop worked on her for a couple months, fixed the damage from the accident plus a few other issues, and finally I got the call.

My beautiful Alakoa and I were back on the road though.

Her I am Abundant sticker still in place.

The first time I drove her up that hill again, I sobbed. Full on ugly cry. The fucking emotions that came up.

The cheering I did for her and I.

Through this, thousands of dollars of repairs have come up.

Kinda big, important, and expensive ones.

I get asked all the time why do I keep dumping so much money into her? Is she worth it? I could just get a new Jeep for what this is costing me.

Superficially, I have standard answers that I give people…

Yup. We bled together.

She is the last of a Jeep era and hard to find.

However, here are some deeper connections that I have made.

In many ways, Alakoa is an extension of me.

First, there was the connection I made driving her up the hill and talking to her. Realizing how different my relationship would be with myself would be if I talked, cheered, and encouraged myself the way I did her.

Second, there was the knowledge that though she had been beat to hell and neglected long before I came along, her engine was solid. She was still going strong. People underestimated her and were willing to discard her. Kinda reminded me of myself.

Finally, this one is two parts and relates to being discarded. At one point, I made an internal connection that I wished I had somebody in my life to fight for me the way I fought for her. To not give up on me. To have faith in me the way I did for her.

As I was pondering this, it hit me.

Fight for myself the way I fight for her.

Don’t give up on myself the way I refuse to give up on her.

Have confidence in myself the way I have confidence in her.

Knowing that she is worth every bit of work.

Refusing to allow her to be sold short.

Refusing to allow myself and others to sell me short.

Grammatically, some may notice that I keep switching between past and present. I promise you, this is not out of laziness but because the Jeep, our story, is so intertwined with my life. My spirit.

Alakoa has become an extension of me.

Some may call her a money pit, I call her a divine investment.

Solid to her bones.

Still going strong even with the deck stacked against her.

A true warrior spirit.

We often navigate life never awaking to our personal warrior spirit. We move day to day, simply existing in a life we have been programmed to believe our path but at our core, we know it does not fit us.

Are you ready to break free of that program? Break free of a life that feels constricting?

Schedule a FREE Freedom Formula call through my calendar link below, send a message through the website, or DM me on instagram TheMelissaLeeParent.

My 1:1 program “Unbound” helps you break free of the mindset and stories you tell yourself that prevent you from living a life of joy. You will learn techniques to help you navigate life’s stressors, how to be present and intentional with both yourself and the relationships with those around you. I will guide you through deep healing and transformation with soul work to complete between our sessions to help maximize results.

We work together to help you break through the suffocating cycles and patterns that hold you back from the life you envision.

And remember friends,

You Matter!