The Train Speeding Along The Tracks Beneath Me

After the other lad had mentioned it something clicked in his mind, yes he remember now. He and Niall had taken advantage of their time off from university to travel, both lads had seen their fair share of Europe and so this was their next stop. Harry was almost certain Niall had been roped in by the concept of blue beer, maid cafés and robot wresting. Harry was just tagging along for the ride. There was something about travel that always sparked something in him. He felt worldly with each new journey. Even taking the short trip from London to Manchester or Leeds would excite him. He loved most of all to write or photograph his journey, even going as far as getting small jobs to magazines or travel blogs to write about his exploits.

As you prepare your exciting trip you start thing about what to wear, what to eat, and what to do while you’re there. You start embracing yourself for what the trip as to offer as far as the cuisine, culture, and lifestyle. “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid gives a point of view of a “tourist” traveling out the country who encounters the difficulties being a tourist. While unpacking for my trip to New Orleans, Louisianans I realized that I now know how Jamaica Kincaid felt when encountering natives in a place that where you don’t belong nor fit into.

As I stared at the window of the airplane, I realized that I am leaving the place I grew up and the only place that I was familiar to. I had a long eighteen hour flight ahead of me. I could not believe I was leaving everyone and everything I knew and cared about. A part of me was excited and I could not wait to start a new life in an exciting country. Also a part of me was sad that I was leaving my friends and family and everyone I knew since I was little.

I woke up from the warm sunlight rays. I looked outside through the window – it was one of those mornings, in which the air is fresh, not too hot, neither too cold. Suddenly I shuddered – a thought ran through my mind, which made me smile immediately – today I should go to incredible Mediterranean cruise. It was my dream since I was a little child and when finally one evening my father made a gift to me and my mother – two tickets for 10 days cruise from Venice to Monte Carlo I was feeling like on the top of the world.

There was a sadness that filled the air all around me and no matter where I went it followed me like a shadow. There was no escaping the dark gloom that I could see in the eyes all around me. This sadness was like nothing I had ever seen or felt in my whole 13 years of existence, and it wasn’t in the air that I breathed when I first woke up this morning in my aunts house in my small hometown in Tama, Iowa.

The city was surrounded by a small river to protect us from the cruelty from the Jungle. The gates opened and in all the years I had lived in the city, the sun never seemed brighter than it was right now. But I know it hadn’t changed. As we loaded on the boats, weighted down by the heaviness of the rusty shackles, I was hoping I would wake up from some bad dream, and return to a life anew. A life where I wasn’t a thief, a life where I had parents to raise me. A life where I didn’t live in slums.

As I sat in the back seat of the car with my forehead pressed against the cool window and my breath fogging up the glass, I watched the unfamiliar landscape crawl by. It felt like an immense betrayal and I understood exactly why I had avoided coming here for so many years; This was the reality I had been trying to avoid. That perfect little

He still remembered everyone’s names and faces. Twenty years had definitely taken its toll on his old neighborhood. The houses that were once a pearly white now had a greenish-black moldy tint to them. Fences that lined properties were rusty and falling apart. The farther he walked the more he felt like a child again, but in a dream world. This world was old, shoddy, and haunting.

I had never wanted to live the life I was born into, but after fifteen years and a turning point in my existence, I wanted to escape more than ever. Who could have imagined that a few days on the road could change so much… Certainly not me.

The world has infinite beauties, locations, and abnormalities far too many for an individual to travel to and experience within one lifetime. With all of the different locations, one often forgets how to enjoy the moments, or activities due to prior knowledge of the location according to Walker Percys’ passage. The explorer imagines every detail of the destination that they plan to travel too, the imagination comes from photos and options from others experiences to the destination. When planning to travel to a specific destination, once in a lifetime or not, One has a certain expectation for the events or activities that happen while on the trip. The expectations are what can either make or break a once in a lifetime vacation, but ultimately

In today’s society I see many people waiting for things to end, for their class to end, for the day to end for the waiting in line to end. We don’t cherish the moment, in the end if you don’t you will be the one wasting your time. Going on a trip to a new country I would ensure that I will enjoy everything about the experience. With a journal in my pocket, camera around my neck,

Think about your favorite place, everyone has one. Whether it’s sitting in your bedroom covered in blankets, in the woods on a hike, or with all your friends at a party, everyone has a place that they go whenever the opportunity presents itself. For me, now, it’s downtown Chicago. If you would’ve asked me that question a few years ago, it would’ve probably been somewhere close to home. That was before I realized how much I loved traveling, and how much I loved being places that were different from what I was used to. But if I wouldn’t have traveled like I have, I would’ve never known.

After the short drive to our terminal, we wait for my other classmates to arrive. After waiting what seemed like years, the group was all there. Mrs. Nick, my instructor, was her usual fun-loving self; which of course meant that she had to take photos of all of us together. She was so excited for the trip. To her, it didn’t matter if it was 6:00 in the morning, yet I was really nervous since I had never been on a plane before. Waiting for the plane to take off, flashes of Final Destination popped into my head.

I knew how fortunate I was to be able to be in such an exotic place but in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself, “I just wanted to be back at home”, I didn’t want to be traveling. Not because I was scared of planes, or I was scared of getting lost, but I was scared that something exciting was happening at home and I wasn’t going to be there to experience it.

It was always a long, tedious drive back to my house in the heart of downtown from my parent’s cozy, but lonely home just a half hour away, smack dab in the middle of no man’s land. That day it felt much longer. The unusual thing about that particular drive home was that there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic. There weren’t any accidents. No trains to put a sudden halt in my route home. There was nothing that could make my drive that day any more boring than it already was. There was nothing out of the ordinary. I wasn’t at all prepared for what was about to happen next.