My Journey As A Journey

Throughout my childhood I struggled to make sense of social situations. It was as if everyone else had been handed a rulebook and I was left in the dark to figure it out myself. My behaviour was abnormal for my age, and I did extremely poorly at school, despite my constant efforts. I wanted to do well, and I knew the answers, but I still struggled.

“A Journey” is a short story written by Edith Wharton in 1899 as part of her collection of short stories called “The Greater Inclination.” This short story is about a wife and husband traveling from Colorado to New York. They travel in turmoil, due to the husband being very sick. He consequently dies, leaving the wife to reach New York on her own, while at the same time, covering up the death of her husband so she does not get booted off the train. While on the train, the wife has several encounters with the porter and passengers, in which she begins to falter and hesitate when talking to them. In “A Journey,” Edith Wharton’s use of tone and imagery revolving around the wife, conveys the negative impact the death of a husband has on a woman to interact with others in a calm manner.

It was the summer between my eighth grade graduation and the start of my first year of high school that my family and I left behind our city dwelling first-floor three-bedroom apartment on a one-way street in Connecticut to the rurally side stacked townhomes and sub-divisions of Virginia. I had not put much thought into why we moved or what might come of moving. I did come to the conclusion that this move would be “better for us” as my mom would say because through copious amounts of research she discovered that the education provided would master that of our public school system where not all students had the books they needed in order to learn and even do homework. As the night transcended and we packed into our vehicles it was

What makes a student a good student? Typically we may think about a book worm stuck away studying in the dark as the “A+” standard. However, is that really what it takes to prosper in education? I believe that being an educated and intelligent person goes beyond book work and requires oneself to be sociable, confident, accepting, and prepared to face challenges. Recently in my senior year I have learned more about myself, and looking at one event in particular, realized how my ability to break a racial divide has prepared me for life after high school.

Moving, although natural, is not easy to most people. How many things are involved when you have to leave your school and friends behind to go to a place totally unfamiliar where anything could go wrong? For me, more than I could count since my family decided to move four thousands miles away.

Throughout elementary and middle school, I was always a successful student in my math and science classes. However, that changed really quickly when I got into my first year of high school. As I entered the more specialized classes in mathematics and science, such as geometry and chemistry, I become stressed as I found myself not doing as well as I used to. All of the anxiety felt unusual and uncomfortable, as it was unfamiliar to me to be not doing well in these courses. The concepts seemed far more difficult and I had a harder time studying because I constantly felt lost. The thing that stumped me the most was how I want able to grasp the things that came easily to all the other kids in class. I kept trying to keep my head above water, but constantly just found myself sinking. I began to think if I could not handle these higher-level classes how was I going to handle the rest of my high school classes.

I also learned how to be part of a team and rely on people. I had to trust that everyone would do their part and help me when I asked. Often this did not work out. People kept canceling on me and I had to delay my project for a while, but I persevered. I thought outside the box to accomplish parts of my project. When I did not collect any books from Trinity, I set up a book drive at St. Teresa's that lasted longer. When I collected books that did not fit in the age group of my project, I looked into organizations that promoted literacy in preschool children and found the Augusta Partnership for Children. When I could not find a high school willing to commit to my project, I explored other options of college students and senior citizens.

As the school years went by and the homework got harder, things got more difficult. Whenever I had English homework, such as reading, I would try to read with my parents, but if I said a word wrong or had trouble, they could not help me or tell me if I was mispronouncing it because they just simply did not know. Therefore when I was in school and I would be asked a question I felt completely lost because I did not know what they were asking. Also if I was chosen to read out loud, I would read slowly compared to the other kids. When we had to go to school to pick up my report card I would usually be given a needs improvement and that I would be given extra help during school. I have been able to overcome this struggle with being able to translate more and become better with communication. I read books as often as I can to improve my reading and writing skills. I may not be the best writer or speaker compared to others, but I do force myself to become

“Katelin. This is all a journey. A trip and right now you’re going nowhere. Your destination is getting back to living a normal life. What me and you are going to do is work out how to get there.”

I never encounter the chances when I need help or asking questions in the classroom. I tend to learn everything on my own or just be more of an independent student. Which causes a lot of downfalls in my grades. Since, I never seek for help when I do not understand something. I try to do to learn it on my own. If I still do not comprehend the concept I give up and move on. That leads to when I take a test or quiz and if the same concept I do not understand appears to me again will affect a lot in my overall grade. An example is when I am in my chemistry lab I tend to be very lost because I was not given any instructions or receive information that can be elaborated on. Even though, I do not struggle on the quizzes but when it comes to hand on hand I give myself a doleful look. Since, I do not understand what is going on.

“Kaylan, I am scared I will not see you in heaven,” my dad said to me crying one day. That is the very moment that I reflect on when thinking about my spiritual pilgrimage. I had accepted Christ into my life at a young age, but did not fully understand the depth of that relationship that I was entering into. I made poor decisions my first two years in high school, and after realizing my choices I was making, my dad questioned if I truly accepted Christ in the first place. I knew I had accepted Christ into my life and received the gift of the Holy Spirit; however, I fell into temptation and quenched the Holy Spirit when alerting me what I was doing was very wrong. My junior year was a year full of healing and restoring for both me and my family. I believe that was the beginning of my spiritual pilgrimage in that sense that I was finally understanding how to participate in the grace to grace relationship with God.

Aboard this journey of a story, we will be making many stops along what my life has come to be. We will start with my birth naturally, and move forward towards the present day. The journey may not be normal, average, or even outstanding for that matter, however these are the conditions that have molded my being. In the paragraphs to come, we will start with my early childhood, then make a stop at my adolescent years, and finally arriving at my adulthood. So here goes my attempt to hastily summarize one’s life to a mere two pages.

Every journey begins with one small step. I took that step, esoterically, at the age of five, after the life altering experiences of past life flashbacks and the realization that the earthly plane was a launching pad to higher planes. I never felt the need to articulate my newfound awareness of a reality so profoundly different from that of the norm, that I acknowledged it secretly as a divine gift, I would one-day share with others.

Lately my grandma has been complaining about all the junk “piled” up in her home. When she says stuff like that it just means she wants more stuff to put in the attic and never use. Grandma isn’t the right image of a hoarder. Her house is very net and organize, for the most part. She stuffs all her net thing in her attic and garage. For some reason her old sweeper that she never uses became in everyone's way. So my dad though he could get a shiney penny for it because the company just stopped making those kinds of sweepers. He ended up selling it for $550. To me it seems crazy because it was only worth like $20 brand new.

Hel sat on her thrown and tossed the knife onto her plate, looking out at those gathered, good and bad. Where did the good go? Where do the bad go? Here. Here feasts are prepared, banquets planned. Maybe a fun game or two. A gift exchange, quid pro quo and all that jazz.