How I Want To Be Traveling!
One day after work, I went to the supermarket for there is a cafeteria in the upper level where I often have my lunch. There's nothing spectacular about the cafeteria. It's the only place within the walkable vicinity where I could sit, have lunch, look out the big windows, and even do some writing on their relatively clean tables. This is often enough for me to pass a few meaningful hours. I sat down with my tomato penne and my phone rang.
"Adam, what're you doing?"
"Just got off work, preparing for more lessons tonight."
"I'm going to Milan on Friday."
Our conversation ended abruptly because my friend's phone card ran out. A split-second stillness fell on me. The short conversation repeated itself in my head. "Just got off work, preparing for more lessons tonight," was exactly what I said and exactly what I meant. It sounded incredibly lame and I caught its lameness the second I finished the utterance. A man's laughter from a nearby table hit me rather loudly.
How I want to be traveling! -- is the moral of this story. There was a time when I was in university when I thought, after handing in my final final exam, I would pinpoint the place on the map and say to myself, "I'm going there," and I'd go there, flashing a high nose at all the boring people who want me to play their boring games. I even drew plans, stacks of them, which I never threw away, which still serve as a reminder of the hopeful days in which I contemplated Beijing, Hokkaido, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, Prague, California, Vancouver... I still want to go away, just not right now. I have responsibilities now. And in the meantime I will keep writing to give my heart its daily water and sunlight, all in preparation for the day I embark on my journey to wherever. Toronto is a lovely place, there just happens to be an awful lot of boring people which would be the same wherever I go, as long as I keep my head about me and not fall like them I'll be okay. When I do go away, it will be special, and I will be my better self.
Back in the cafeteria I remember the sky was cloudy and smoggy and slightly yellow and the cafeteria was unusually crowded, but the pasta tasted pretty good and I still go there for their good pasta.
"Adam, what're you doing?"
"Just got off work, preparing for more lessons tonight."
"I'm going to Milan on Friday."
Our conversation ended abruptly because my friend's phone card ran out. A split-second stillness fell on me. The short conversation repeated itself in my head. "Just got off work, preparing for more lessons tonight," was exactly what I said and exactly what I meant. It sounded incredibly lame and I caught its lameness the second I finished the utterance. A man's laughter from a nearby table hit me rather loudly.
How I want to be traveling! -- is the moral of this story. There was a time when I was in university when I thought, after handing in my final final exam, I would pinpoint the place on the map and say to myself, "I'm going there," and I'd go there, flashing a high nose at all the boring people who want me to play their boring games. I even drew plans, stacks of them, which I never threw away, which still serve as a reminder of the hopeful days in which I contemplated Beijing, Hokkaido, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, Prague, California, Vancouver... I still want to go away, just not right now. I have responsibilities now. And in the meantime I will keep writing to give my heart its daily water and sunlight, all in preparation for the day I embark on my journey to wherever. Toronto is a lovely place, there just happens to be an awful lot of boring people which would be the same wherever I go, as long as I keep my head about me and not fall like them I'll be okay. When I do go away, it will be special, and I will be my better self.
Back in the cafeteria I remember the sky was cloudy and smoggy and slightly yellow and the cafeteria was unusually crowded, but the pasta tasted pretty good and I still go there for their good pasta.
posted by Adam C at
11:00 PM
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