TRTLPWR Story

When I was in high school, I had a slight obsession with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I carried a TMNT lunchbox to school. (Yes, I was one of those kids.) I collected the little action figures. I knew which turtle carried which weapon. I knew the lyrics to the TV show theme song.

In my senior year, I was voted the winner of the Peter Pan Forever award, as in The One Who Will Never Grow Up. It could have had something to do with the Ninja Turtles. (Or maybe it was the fact that on the day we voted I had worn roller skates and brought my teddy bear to school resulting in my entire 3rd period English class voting for me.)

In addition to being a total dork, I was spoiled rotten. At my 18th birthday party, my parents surprised me with a new car. It was a lime green Honda Civic Del Sol. A tiny little two-seater convertible. It practically demanded vanity plates.

And what more appropriate plates for a Ninja Turtle obsessed brat driving around in a lime green convertible? TRTLPWR, of course.

I drove that little car all through college, where it's wheels were stolen and it was left on bricks. It was transported cross-country to DC and eventually driven to Atlanta. It wasn't until after Jeremy and I were married that we finally traded it in for a sensible, four-door, four passenger Civic. The newer Civic gets the job done, but it doesn't inspire memories the way the Del Sol did.

I still have the action figures. I still have the lunchbox. I still have the dozens of Ninja Turtle drawings that friends and family made for me.

Best of all, I still have the memories of those carefree days. And of course, I still have the plates.

(Thanks to Imez for inspiring this post.)
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