That Which is Oppo Does Not "Goodbye"

"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
08/11/2016 at 10:00 • Filed to: Oppo Never Dies, #ImWithOppo

Like most other members here, I have a day job, I inevitably work overtime, and I have a life beyond the keyboard. In that life, I spend a good most of it figuring out what I’m going to do next with the HEMIWagon. Am I going to go for a long drive? Am I going to tackle the obnoxiously long list that keeps getting longer of things that need fixing?

Fortunately, I do both, often. The list will never get shorter, no matter how much I get done. I know the end point of the build as I envision it, but I’m also aware that things can, and always do happen to go very wrong in the process. Because of that, the HEMIWagon Project Log will never find an end. Much like the HEMIWagon, Oppo, as a collective group, will also never end. Much like the parts of a car, things break, fall off, or are left off for various reasons that sometimes we can justify, other times we cannot.

MountainCommand, a user who’s now more stranger than regular here, started the TriState Meetups, a tradition I picked up the torch of, and will continue to carry for quite a long time. It’s not my intention to ever stop holding meetups. We may go a while between having them, and people will sometimes get impatient about it, but it’s a persistent tradition, and I can only hope that should I move away or find myself unable to organize them, that someone else will take the torch and continue things. It’s frustrating, occasionally discouraging, but ultimately extremely rewarding.

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I have friendships in life that I otherwise would never have without Oppo. People that I’ve spent a lot of time with, under cars, in cars and staring at cars, telling stories and creating new ones. Things I would never go back and change, not in a million years.

I wouldn’t own the cars I own today if it weren’t for Oppo. We share an outlet of automotive desire and as a group are able to support each other in such a way that some users don’t realize. It’s not about the cars though. It’s about the people. There are no more than six degrees of separation, and Oppo is proof of that. Members of Oppo get married, have families, get old, and share that with each other as though we were all one large family, and it’s something that we can share, and perpetuate by inviting new people and welcoming them.

I spend many hours planning driving routes, more hours driving them, and many, many dollars fixing the cars when they break for all sorts of reasons. I spend many hours putting together roll calls, looking for users that live in my area, collecting contact info and getting to know them by sharing a common interest. We get to know each other extremely well, and no longer need a car show to meet up. We hang out as if we were childhood friends, and help each other out when we can.

Oppo is bigger than just a URL we punch into our computers or phones. Oppo is a family. Oppo may be a dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. To say that the end of http://www.oppositelock.kinja.com is the end of Oppo is unfortunately your own opinion, and I’m sorry you feel that way.

We as members of Oppo, and for the majority of us between 17 and 35, make up one of the most important target audiences of the automotive industry. We don’t have to agree, and we don’t have to like the same things. What we do need to do is transcend to a greater level together, and agree about where we will be tomorrow, where we will be next year, and where we will be in five years time.

Am I going to let the end of a URL be the end of so many friendships? Of course not. I will still send out emails to organize meetups, and I will still reach out to many of you individually if I’m in the area or putting together a more unique or “themed” meetup. It isn’t about the cars though. Every email I send out, I make it clear that you can join in whatever car you want. It’s about sticking together, accepting everyone, and getting out from behind the keyboard. Much like I recognize many of my friends from high school, some of whom I’ve haven’t seen in nearly 6 years, and pick up in conversation like it were nothing, I can meet up with Oppos that I haven’t seen in several months, and despite not knowing each other for many years, we can immediately start conversations, and no, they don’t all have to do with cars.

I’ve never bothered trying to dig up how long I’ve been an Oppo member because it hasn’t always been this account. When I first posted, I wrote about my SL. It wasn’t mine at the time, I didn’t post pictures of it for many reasons. We’ll just say that in the beginning, there were a lot of keyboard warriors telling me I was lying. A good number of fellow members, and even Jalopnik staff (not just writers!) have seen the car, and some have been in it because I’m not shy about sharing it. It’s not a competition, there are plenty of fellow Oppos that have cars that I’m quite jealous of, but it drives the enthusiasm to share and experience new things. I certainly didn’t let the rough start stop me from being active on Oppo, and can only hope that new faces are not discouraged by the uncertainly held by the future.

I’ll certainly go on the record by saying that I do have an opinion on the events surrounding the situation. I wont share the specifics with you, but there is a much greater picture, and I absolutely do take a side, but not because of Oppo. I went to school for Television and Digital Media. I’ve taken many journalism courses. Few of those courses have been able to teach me as much as just writing my own articles, taking my own pictures, and then tweeting, emailing and pestering Jalopnik staff to click the share button. And then to click the share button again. It’s a great feeling to know that I’ve come up with work that was worthy of being shared. Is it a scientific journal? No, but it’s a foot in the door of the automotive industry, and one which I would like to get into in some capacity in the future. Jalopnik itself is not the immediate target of this mess, but we will all just have to see where the future takes us. I’m not going to let an offended billionaire stand in the way of my future, so I’m going to take my own calculated risks to have a future in any industry.

I’m not sad, nor am I scared for the future of Oppo. I’m living it every day. The Oppo sticker on Steve Lehto’s SUV? I sent it to him. I got Doug to attend a meetup, and he brought Tvarish along with him. I’ve talked with Stef the Pef and Ballaban about articles or other things. I even worked with Mathias aligning Aaron’s first 944 in a parking lot on a Friday night (two days before it blew up outside Pocono Raceway). Aaron may write for other publications now, and Doug may have gone to different pastures in the automotive world, but we can all drive home at the end of a night and know that what brought us together is bringing together countless other people around the world as well. Dan Ike just had Oppomeet 2016 last weekend, and I assure you, the uncertain future of Oppo was no discouragement.

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The next TriState Meetup is going to be November 20th. It’s going to happen whether I can post pictures on oppositelock.kinja.com or not.

DISCUSSION (14)

OPPOsaurus WRX > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 19:31

Am I going to tackle the obnoxiously long list that keeps getting longer of things that need fixing?

me too

I wouldn’t own the cars I own today if it weren’t for Oppo.

me too

i’ll be at climb to the clouds 2017. I’m sure I’ll see dusty there.

TheHondaBro > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 19:36

I have a life beyond the keyboard

Showoff.

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 19:38

Well said.

LongbowMkII > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 19:51

Which tristate is this?

JGrabowMSt > LongbowMkII
08/10/2016 at 19:54

New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Also serving the rest of the Northeast as well.

Decay buys too many beaters > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 20:09

Hoping to finally make one of these and meet some of you east coast guys in person. Been living out in Oregon for a few years now but grew up right outside Allentown and I’ll be in the area around that time for family Thanksgiving stuffs.

JGrabowMSt > Decay buys too many beaters
08/10/2016 at 20:13

Im pretty sure you’ve been on the list for a while, I dont remove people from the emails without reason (I know theyre away, or its a spur of the moment thing and people live far out).

Decay buys too many beaters > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 20:17

Yep! I’ve been on the list ever since we had that freak early November snow storm a few years back.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 20:22

Even though I don’t agree with everything this site does, I still love it. I haven’t met enough of you in person, but the few that I have met have been great. I probably wouldn’t have either of my vehicles, either. One I would have sold through vein attempts at being cool, and the other because I wouldn’t have been caught dead in a small car before I got here. Now here I am, with two awesome vehicles that I love dearly, that are polar opposites. I think of them as the old me, and the new me. This site has been my sanity through some difficult times, and I’m grateful for that.

Also, could I possibly get on the meetup mailing list? I don’t live in the tri-state area, but I could make a weekend trip out of it someday.

Matt Nichelson > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 20:23

I can’t even find the words right now. That was well spoken. Thanks for posting this.

JGrabowMSt > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
08/10/2016 at 21:03

Shoot me an email! I can certainly add you to the list.

[My username]@gmail

Scary__goongala! > JGrabowMSt
08/10/2016 at 21:20

I can think of a reason why I won’t be able to attend the November meet up. Mountain command is a name I haven’t seen on here in quite some time. Appreciate what you do man.

Dave the car guy , still here > JGrabowMSt
08/11/2016 at 10:11

Extremely well done. I might have to email you even though I’m in Ohio. Might try to go to Climb to the Clouds with Oppo guys next year and we will need to have all the contacts we can just in case.

JGrabowMSt > Dave the car guy , still here
08/11/2016 at 10:15

Feel free to shoot me an email.

[My username]@gmail