When it comes to where to go on vacation, me and my family have differing opinions. My mom is a fan of scenery... but living in New Brunswick, I had enough scenery at the age of five to last me a lifetime. I view scenery slightly like I view "The Sound of Music": good about every five years, but not something I go out of my way for. In my life, there is simply too much scenery for me to actually appreciate it. I prefer cities, by far. Living in a small city (population: 80 000, including surrounding areas) for the majority of my life, I've always seen pictures of bigger, better places, where notable things actually happen, and I've been fascinated by them. I still am fascinated by them.
I went to Kenya when I was six to visit my grandparents for a month, when they worked at RVA, where my parents later went to work four years later. Going to and from Kenya, I passed through the Toronto, Amsterdam, and London (Heathrow) airports. I didn't actually go out of the airports, except in Toronto, due to an unfortunate thunderstorm and another plane crashing (everyone survived). I had been to Toronto before, but it was nothing new. I just saw it as Toronto, a city with little personality in my experience, and it never really occurred to me that I could actually go to other cities. In the Amsterdam and London airports, I looked out the windows, heard different accents, and saw pictures of the cities the airports belonged to. I was definitely interested in them, but because the rest of my family isn't too big on cities, I saw them as completely out of my reach.
On the way back from Kenya in 2007, my parents decided to stop in Amsterdam on the way back. This was an ignorant decision, on our part. I think my mom forgot how much big cities and crowds terrified her, not to mention that this was Amsterdam. Coming from a Christian boarding school in rural Africa to Amsterdam was definitely not the best vacation we've ever had. We didn't know what to do in Amsterdam, we were in transition, and Amsterdam is one crazy city. Now that I've been to high school in Canada, I think I could handle it. But then, I could not. And neither could my family. It was not a good time.
I probably would have enjoyed it more, had it not been for my mom's constant complaining and her general uncomfortableness. She also tends to become obsessive away from her comfort zone, and repeats things over and over again. This made us rather irritable.
This summer in London, the same thing kind of happened, but it was way more enjoyable than Amsterdam. It was at the tail end of our trip, and we were slightly disoriented after traveling for so long. I had a good time, though. I'm just getting to an age where traveling with parents is more of a pain than anything else. I saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and all sorts of other places that I've heard of but have basically thought of as fairy tales. I enjoy the chaos of the city. I like that the city goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks, as opposed to here, where there's about five streets I find interesting in the entire city. And I love the underground. Someday, I need to live in a city with an underground or a subway. I find that in big cities, there's always something new to discover, and I feel that my city has nothing that should keep me here for the rest of my life. I want to go see the world.
But unfortunately, I'm fifteen. I have two and a half years left of high school. I have so much to do before I can choose what I do, instead of what is required of me. I feel sort of stuck with limited options of what I can do. Level 1 or IB classes? To join choir or not to join choir? Do I wear the blue shirt or black shirt?
Traveling makes me feel like I'm doing something with my time. Realizing that there's more than what I've lived around my entire life, and that there's so much more to see.
Does this come with being young? Does it wear off with time, or are some people just stuck with the desire to see the world? Or maybe a mixture?
With deeper thoughts than usual,
-J-
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