Perhaps I'm feeling a bit nostalgic….but here goes anyway…
Dear Toyota,
Thank you.
I know many people are embarrassed or have mixed feelings about having gone through the minivan-buying rite of passage, but I don't feel that way about it. For me, it coincided with becoming a parent, and that I'm very proud of. July 3rd will mark our 8th year of having our 2006 Toyota Sienna minivan and July 11th marks the 8th birthday of our first child.
It may sound silly, but that vehicle is an integral part of our family. In fact, a number of significant firsts have occurred in that vehicle. Eight days after making this big purchase, we drove to the hospital through contraction after contraction in our brand new mini. A few days later we strapped our teeny baby into a car seat, got in and drove away from the hospital and into our brand new lives. One week later, we drove to the airport to pick up my mom; she met her very first grandchild there in the middle row of the mini.
Two years later, we drove away from that same hospital with a toddler and another brand new baby strapped into the seats behind us.
We have gone on countless adventures, both near and far, in that vehicle. We've picked up friends and family and luggage from the airport for family reunions and baptisms and birthdays and random visits.
My mom, two aunts, two sons, my old Leonberger, my husband and I once all piled in and took a day trip to Duluth; that was quite an adventure. A few years ago, we drove from the Twin Cities across the state of Wisconsin with the kids and our old giant dog to meet and take home our new giant, a rescued St. Bernard. We take an annual road trip from Minnesota to Texas to see family and friends every summer, with our mini stuffed full of things for stops along the way, at a lake and at the beach.
We've weathered wind, rain, snow and ice in our mini. We feel secure and safe in our vehicle. We trust that we can always pack in everything we need for a trip, a CraigsList run or after a visit to IKEA; and my son's giant hockey bag fits perfectly.
Our mini is more than a mode of transportation; it's our mode of living. It gets us where we need to be.
Yes, it's not so progressive of me to rely on a gas fueled vehicle made by a foreign company, I know. But it's true. We rely on this vehicle every single day.
It's marked with crayons and juice stains and a dent in the rear fender from that time I backed into a pole in a parking garage. There's a hole rubbed into the driver's seat floor mat from where our heels rest. The middle console is filled with snippets of papers with long forgotten notes, an applesauce pouch, a granola bar, some sticky coins, several napkins, a spoon from Dairy Queen, a Norwex cloth or two, and a collection of pens, pencils and crayons from a restaurant.
In the "way back", there's a bag of soccer balls, a bat and glove and a couple of reusable shopping bags and a couple of bag chairs, a sign of summer. The "way back" assortment changes seasonally.
This vehicle holds our lives in it, daily… both figuratively and literally. And for that, Toyota, I thank you for our reliable vehicle from which we conduct our lives.
We joke that this will be our son's first car. They age together, year after year, and as a family that is more concerned with functionality than appearances when it comes to our vehicles {and hopefully other things in our lives too}, it really might be his first car at the age of 16. My parents are still driving their 18 year old Toyota…
Over and out…
Anna