Back when I was in high school, my sister bought me a book, titled “101 Things To Do Before You Die”. I still occasionally thumb through it and wonder what might be next on the list… Some of the tasks in there have been easy to accomplish, some are fun but I haven’t gotten there yet, a couple of them are illegal, some are risqué, and a few of them I just have no interest in doing. It’s all in good fun, though, since the entire point seems to be this: Don’t forget to truly live your life. Live it well, and have fun along the way.
One of the 101 tasks that has always interested me is # 13: “Meet Someone With Your Own Name”. In 2023, another Justin Kilmer was in the news (and probably could have crossed off some goals from this book along the way) when his Honda Accord hit the crazy milestone of 1,000,000 miles on its original engine. I caught wind of the story, and it turns out this is the same Justin Kilmer I already knew about, who is a Navy pilot/flight instructor.
I grew up going to air shows with my Air Force veteran father in Dayton, Ohio (the home of the Wright brothers and called “the birthplace of aviation”), and having a brother who’s an accomplished pilot, my interest in flight runs deep. Part of me hoped to somehow chat with that Justin Kilmer someday.
During the publicity leading up to hitting the million-mile mark on the Honda, I found one of Justin’s social media posts about the car and left a comment, congratulating him on the accomplishment and mentioned we share the same name. As it turned out, he already knew of me, as well, from my name being in the credits on one of his favorite TV shows: NCIS. Soon enough, we were messaging back and forth, discussing genealogy, the Honda, aviation, TV, and more.
Months later, my wife and I attended a wedding in Texas. Other than catching connecting flights there, we had never spent any time in The Lone Star State. As fate would have it, though, that's where Justin lives. We had kicked around the idea of meeting for dinner. Graciously, he and his wife offered to make the long drive to where we were.
So, these two Justin Kilmers ended up meeting on what also happened to be my birthday. For a few hours, we geeked out over our mutual interests, and our wives contributed to the interesting conversation. Finally, I got to mark that curious task - “Meet Someone With Your Own Name" - as "complete" in the book and also made a new, great friend from this experience.
"Justin Kilmers Unite!"
Written by: Justin J. Kilmer
Edited by: Janine Kilmer
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