Well I save my money for the laptop. No parental aid. I also found your metaphor clever and funny. I'm just going to be commuting a lot for school next year when I start next semester but yeah holding is not a problem. Thanks for the help
Thank you. It's nice to hear that someone your age (or hell, even MY age) is being prudent and responsible with their money.
Knowing that you're about to start college helps somewhat. Again, the Air will have a big benefit in terms of battery life, and size and weight if you'll be carrying it around all day.
That said, I'd still wait at least a year to upgrade:
a) You'll qualify for education discounts in college if you don't already;
b) You'll get a better sense of your true needs once you start at the new location (i.e., if they've got accessible ac outlets all over the place, the battery life doesn't become much of an issue, and/or you realize your current rig is or is not too big to tote all day);
c) Broadwell promises even battery life and integrated graphics (and maybe even another Apple marquee feature) if you can wait until Juneish of 2014;
d) You can't easily or cheaply upgrade an Air or a Retina's storage like you did your 'old school' pro, and a RAM upgrade is impossible. Buying a laptop now may mean that you may have to buy another one by the time you finish college (assuming you're just starting four years of it);
e) And who knows, Apple may even go retina on all it's laptops and drop the price accordingly in a year or two. Remember, the 2008 Air was a premium priced CEO laptop due to it's then cutting edge design, but became Apple's entry level portable a mere two years later.
Good luck with your decision.