Dear Car,

First of all, I apologize for not giving you a name when I first got you in the winter of my high school senior year; I just never got around to it. But even though you’re nameless, you have become one of the most significant items in my life: family, friends, education, singing… and then there’s you.

You have been there for me no matter what — rain or snow, heat or cold, or dry or wet. The physical and metaphoric journeys that we had gone through together happened in the most important times of my life. All the memories that I share with you can and will never be replaced and replicated by future cars in my life.

Thank you for all the miles that I had driven with you for my family restaurant’s deliveries; without your Bluetooth functionality, I would have to suffer and listen to today’s Top 40 radio and not my power ballads and operas. Thank you for the above-average sound system that makes the quality of my music pleasurable to my ears. Thank you for your beautiful, gigantic panoramic sunroof that I get to open to enjoy the refreshing breeze on gorgeous days. Thank you for being there for all the late night beach walks that my best friend and I take during the summer and the car trips around Williamsburg with my freshman “cult” mates (Don’t worry, we’re actually not in one). Thank you for surviving all the untreated rural roads of backwoods Virginia when I visited my fraternity big. Thank you for protecting my family when we took our rare day-vacation to D.C. Thank you for keeping me attentive whenever I get stuck in tunnel traffic while trying to get back home in Virginia Beach on the other side of the water.

But most importantly, thank you for being a method of de-stressing, allowing me to just focus on driving and listen to the music to my own liking because, honestly, life simply gets too overwhelming sometimes. For me, driving represents this freedom and ability to escape from real-world responsibilities; when I’m driving, I’m in my little car bubble, listening to my own music and nothing from the outside world can distract me in those precious, one-on-one moments that I have with my car. I can drive for as long as I want to, enjoying the changing street scenes from the driver’s seat and under the enormous sunroof, all from being inside of the my car’s safe bubble.

I can’t appreciate you enough, especially after having replaced your front bumper after a nighttime accident with a wild animal while trying to drive back to Virginia Beach. We have been together for over 25,000 miles and I can’t wait for the next 25,000 miles with you knowing that they will be filled with memories and experiences so special and unique that I just have to live in the moment with you.

Thank you once again, Joe.

Andy