What exit are you?

On Wednesday night I met one of my best friends at a halfway point for both of us just off the parkway so we could get together, have dinner, chat, and catch up. It was a great night, and we both realized afterwards how much we wish we could do this on a more regular basis.

So while I was driving home, I started thinking about exit numbers on the highways and where they have oddly played a part in my life. I know I've talked about this before, but when we were younger, my family used to spend anywhere from a couple of weeks to practically the whole summer at the shore. The day of departure usually required a VERY early start so we could avoid all the other Saturday traffic. I would be so excited that even though it was early, i could never sleep on the way down. Instead, I used to keep track of the exit numbers and wonder what was at that exit. I can vividly remember thinking what Ocean Grove was like at Exit 100 (then years later ended up living there). I think it came to a point where I could relay back all the numbers because I had gone over them so many times in my head.

When I got older and had met my ex-boyfriend, I ended up spending every week of my junior year driving back and forth to the shore because of those circumstances. I used to keep track of the exits on 195 because that meant I was getting closer. I didn't know much about the town he lived in then, I just knew it was very close to the beach. Go figure, years later, I would end up living there permanently myself.

One of my parents' favorite pictures of me was taken at an inlet at the shore when I was only about two years old with my great grandparents. Who would have thought about 23 years later I would have my engagement photos taken at the same spot.

On one of our trips back to my fiance's home town recently, I was telling him a story that I thought would be unbelievable to him. One of my routes between MY hometown and college cut through practically 5 minutes from his HOUSE. While we were partially driving that route, I told him that when we got to the point it forked, I can HONESTLY remember reading the sign towards his hometown wondering what was down that way everytime I drove that way. Now, many years later, I'm driving that same route, but to the house of my fiance's family.

It's funny how there's odd things in your life you can attribute connections too. I realized on a trip back from meeting with my best friend how something as silly as exit signs can remind you of points in your life that connect together. Maybe they're just coincidences, but to me, I find them to be rather comforting to know that something early on was maybe foreshadowing to my future. It's an interesting thing to think about.