It’s much more than an old license plate.

My first new car after college was a bright red, 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 and this was my license plate.  This plate has been in and out of circulation on family and kids cars ever since, but no more.  My daughter moved to Texas, became an official Texas resident and had to replace this heirloom with one from Texas.

I visited my daughter in her new home last month and she gave me back my license plate.  She knew it means something to me, but what exactly?  Well, it means this:

• Being a nervous kid starting on a career journey, earning very little money but starting to find my way.
• Meeting and marrying a young lady and starting a life then family together.
• Career and life ups-and-downs, successes and failures.
• Uncertainty raising kids through teen years then college, hoping they’d find their way
• Difficult decisions to make every year with no easy answer

I look at this plate now and think back to that scared, know-nothing kid and just think “I had no idea what was to come…good and bad.”  I could have never written the script for my life and career since I put that on my first car…but I found my way, with that plate taking the journey with me.