Seeing a license plate from home when you’re somewhere really far away

Every plate has a story.

Maybe it’s a cab of college kids on an endless summer road trip. Beef jerky wrappers, stained T-shirts, and a sweaty cooler fill the backseat of the rusty Volvo as they cruise cross-country to soak in some sunny freedom before school starts. You see them laughing in front of you with a plate from your hometown and you smile softly at distant days gone by ...

Or maybe it’s a couple retirees from the same state as you out enjoying the first few weeks of a brand new life. As you pass their big boxy RV in the slow lane, you peek in and notice a wrinkly driver in a tight ballcap and baggy pink shirt steering fiercely with a big twinkle in her eye. Your brain backflips as you daydream about your last day of work ...

Or maybe it’s a family station wagon filling up at the pumps with a canoe on the roof and sleeping bags in the window. They’re heading up north the same way you are and inside two kids play video games in crumbs and juice stains as baby chews Cheerios and falls fast asleep. You glance at your boyfriend riding shotgun and he looks up innocently and smiles ...

Yes, seeing a license plate from your home in a place far, far away is just a little winking reminder that we’re all joined from the edge of our driveway to the edge of your driveway. Dusty towns, big cities, open fields, and tree-lined lanes may lie between us ... but the truth is we’re all in this together: bouncing in cars, swerving down roads, spinning in place, flying through space.

AWESOME!