humanity
If nothing else, travel opens your eyes to the colorful quilt that is humankind.
The Final Find
Some say there is always an unexpected change of course in the wind, meaning life can take a turn for the worse or the better in a flash of an eye. The wind changes directions in an instant, without warning, measuring up to some other result. I never thought this was an actual occurrence in life itself, that the way we did things would ever take a toll, not to the extent that it has for me anyway. The more I think about it, the more I chose not to understand it and I wonder if it's just a defense mechanism in which my brain is just trying to control or mask my feelings. Either way, there is a story here with all this rambling, one in which is hard to explain but I will do my best.
By Kaitlyn Proue5 years ago in Wander
Serenity in Chaos
The blue hue of the sky, so inviting, so large, so close. The clouds dance around my head leaving small puddles of rain around me. The vast darkness of space, mixed in with trillions of twinkles, make their way through the blue. The sky has officially fallen in on me. But not just the sky, buildings, and mountains, they all seem to fall. And here I am trying to build a house out of cards. Orange glows in the distance fills me with warmth, even at this distance. The crashing sounds wave, like ocean tides, washing away any glimpse of feeling I have left to feel. I gladly receive this baptism. I sit upon a hilltop, in a medium-sized home maybe about two or three bedrooms, in my meditative sitting position soaking up the waves and embers. Roars of wild beasts fill my heart with tingles that travel throughout my entire body, but I don’t have the ability to muster up the strength to even shed a blink. Beautiful luminous lights from the skies descend down to our land, as if on a business trip from the nebulas. I wonder what their business is for them being here, huh. But back to my house, it really isn’t even my house. I just found it on my pilgrimage and saw that there were no lights on and it was empty with an open door. It feels like mine though. I was looking for water and food, I found some, just haven’t decided to leave this place yet. Something about it is just so serene like I don’t have a care in the world anymore. People are littering the streets, setting up massive fires for warmth, and here I am, just a traveler in someone else’s home. Even though I’m not the only one that does this, it doesn’t feel the same with me. Am I supposed to be above this type of activity? I don’t know. All I know is that I haven’t moved from this porch yet in quite some time. I started to notice details in the design of this house, paneling for the sides, brick for the front, red shutters, and chimney. The reasoning for this type of shelter has now changed. The need for bolts, nails and wood, and weapons. I wonder what time was like when people felt more free, free to be themselves, free to love, free to care, free to do whatever they wanted. All I know is strife, violence, protection, hoarding, and micromanaging. All of these sights strike me as beautiful though, is it because this is all I’ve ever known? Have I truly come to accept, and embrace it? Has the world come to accept it and I follow suit? Huh. Why don’t I move from this porch? Am I scared, lazy, uninspired? What time is it? I should be getting back. The more I try to leave, the more this porch reaches its arms out and forces me not to move. If I leave, it might give this poor old porch a heartbreak, and what type of person would I be if I just left this porch all alone. I should be a good steward with it and keep it company, as it has accompanied me while I was lost in thought. Oh well, I guess we can both sit here and observe this immaculate devastating painting together, of the end of the world.
By aadaamkelly5 years ago in Wander
His Road, My Home
A new journey is on the horizon. He has purchased a new vehicle. This one he has named Journey. She has been outfitted and designed as uniquely as all the others. A womb about to birth a new lifetime. He has been preparing and packing for a week now. He always gets like this before the tires hit the pavement. An overwhelming excitement of what lay ahead. He lives for the adventure, for the not knowing, the surviving. He's packed his machete, his hatchet, and his bow and arrow. The months here have made him soft and sleepy and his body craves the alertness needed in the wildness we are heading towards.
By Acorn Elephante5 years ago in Wander
The Unexpected Journey
A man was lounging on his couch, looking at the television without seeing it. He felt incredibly numb. He’d had a rough year to say the least, and he was definitely starting to feel the weight of a 9 to 5 job he didn’t enjoy doing anymore. He’d contemplated quitting numerous times, but never had the guts to actually do it. He didn’t have a passion to fall back on. Like so many others he knew, he was content just going through the motions, living paycheck to paycheck. He tried to convince himself that the few luxuries he could afford and the scarce nights out with friends were enough of an existence.
By Marie J. Reid5 years ago in Wander
A Traveler’s Tale and A Little Black Book
The ferry finally arrived at the Greek island of Ios. Maggie and Nicole had been rocking the waves since 6:00 am that morning. They are on the last leg of their backpacking trip through Europe. They were both experiencing a mix of emotions. “Wow, finally the last leg of our trip.” And “Oh, bummer this is the last leg of our trip.”
By victoria patricolo5 years ago in Wander
Two hometowns?
Is it possible to claim two hometowns? “Where are you from?” is a good question that is always thrown around. I am originally from a city where most people tend to mispronounce the name or ask “where’s that?” so my most typical response is “it’s about 20 minutes from Boston” to save emptiness chatter.
By Michael James Moïse5 years ago in Wander
Borderland Identity
“Home is where the heart is.” Well, by nature, my heart is all over the place, all the time. It always has been. Even as a child in pictures, regardless of the setting, whether it be in front of my house in Burr Ridge, IL, at the Brookfield Zoo, where I spent as much time as I could, balancing on a log at the duck pond in Cape May Point, New Jersey, or pretending to roller skate with street performers in Central Park when we lived in New York City when I was 3. . . you can see it.
By Lady Headlamp5 years ago in Wander
What My Hometown Taught Me About Black and White
Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S.A. A shrewd junior high school teacher once asked my class to estimate what percentage of the U.S. population was Black and what percentage was Jewish. We extrapolated from the world that we saw around us every day and guessed fifty percent for each group.
By Carolyn Murray5 years ago in Wander
Home Away From Homeland
When that which you love about a thing is included in its name, you know it's something extraordinary. I love the beach and I adore my hometown Pompano Beach. Pompano Beach, Florida has been my home since 2012. That's when I migrated from my birthplace Jamaica to the United States. On the plane coming in, I worried if I would feel too far from home. Yet, to my pleasant surprise, palm trees dotted every corner, coconut trees danced as the warm beachy air brushed upon their leaves and the locals proved to be friendly. Florida felt familiar. Florida felt like home and for that reason, it became my home.
By ItalixVEVO5 years ago in Wander
Welcome to Savannah, Georgia
I remember the very first time I came to Savannah to visit some family that had recently moved here in 2014, it was literally love at first sight. Originally, I’m from a small town in Kansas so Savannah was truly unlike any town I had ever seen before. The first thing I noticed on the drive from the airport was the beautiful trees and the random bodies of water I was used to being landlocked so the water made everything look so tropical and serene to me. We have lots of trees in Kansas too but these trees just made a different impression on me. They were so big, I actually remember the word “mighty“ coming to mind as the best word to describe them. A lot of the trees grow this moss that makes them look so unique some would even say “creepy” sometimes. You could just tell they had been there for awhile and survived a lot. I enjoyed taking in all the beauty but the moment I knew Savannah was going to be my new home was when I visited the famous “Riverstreet” for the first time. Savannah isn’t that big but it still draws in a lot of tourists due to it being such a history rich city. Riverstreet was so exciting to me! I had heard about several different movies being shot there because of the historic bricks and stairs and I was very excited to see for myself. People were everywhere. There were men driving down those rugged uneven “historic bricks” in these fancy cars blasting loud music, there were different stations set up selling their art, face painting, and singing. There are these beautiful luxurious and historic hotels, a giant ferry, and people literally walking around getting as drunk as they wanted. It was just so interesting to me to see how happy everyone looked. There were kids playing and running and couples holding hands looking out at the river. Everybody seemed to get along and seemed happy to be there. I was immediately drawn to the energy. I just remember smiling so big and wanting to see EVERYTHING. I even sang a song with a random man playing his guitar and I just remember feeling so free. I knew that day that I would most likely be coming back to stay. I honestly didn’t know much about Savannah or its history to be honest. But the more that I learned about the history of Savannah it surprisingly pulled me in even more. I did a tour while I was there where I found out that Savannah played a huge part in the trading of enslaved people in the United States. As a matter of fact, there are a few popular underground clubs that used to be where they would hold enslaved people. As a Nigerian-American woman walking the same streets I knew for a fact enslaved people of color not only built but were sold on brought so many different emotions. If I’m being completely honest I felt almost a measure of guilt about visiting certain places and enjoying myself there knowing what they used to be used for. But in a strange way, I was drawn to it like an involuntary pull. Outside of the slave history, I found it interesting overall to be able to visit different restaurants and buildings that have been here since the early 1800s and even the historic churches are absolutely amazing. Long story short, I was completely smitten by the end of my trip. I decided to leave my hometown and make that move about seven months later. It wasn’t an easy decision but it definitely felt like the right one. I immediately felt accepted and understood. In a way I felt more at home than I ever had in my actual hometown. I am a very expressive person and I really felt this new environment accepted me well. I was also surprised to find out that southern hospitality actually was a thing. In Kansas, we have influence from pretty much the entire country, but I wouldn’t say hospitality is our strong suit but people were so polite here and it was refreshing. There is so much diversity and culture in Savannah in my opinion. As an artist, living in a city where there is a world renowned art school was also surreal. I‘ve learned so much hanging out with SCAD students and inspiration is literally everywhere. It didn’t take me long at all to integrate into my new environment. I’ve lived here for about five years now and Savannah means more to me now than I ever imagined it would. My family and I decided to get an ancestry tests done just to gain further understanding of our roots and who we really are. After doing some digging I was absolutely shocked to find out that we had had enslaved ancestors actually born right here in Savannah, Georgia. The news stirred up so many emotions. What hit me the hardest is that I had decided to visit Wormsloe plantation here about six months prior to finding this news out. Seeing the condition of the slave quarters, those big fields people were forced to work, and all of those beautiful mighty trees that I knew had seen it all on that plantation was already a lot to process. Finding out for a fact though that one of my ancestors lived it broughy everything much closer to home. Pain, anger, and frustration struck me pretty hard. For a while I even grew resentful of the city for moving on.. Visiting Riverstreet took on a whole new meaning for me after that. Over time though, I just couldn’t help but think about how in a way, it was so beautiful that my family had unintentionally ended up where our family tree in this country began.. The same place where so much pain and sadness existed for our ancestors we came back to and created a completely different reality. It was as if we were called home to make it right, make it different. After sitting with that information for a while I still feel a lot of different emotions but it all became clear to me why I was so drawn to this city and it’s history. Because it is MY history. I’ve been here for a while now and I still feel like there’s so much I don’t know about the city and I learn something new every day. It’s not always pleasant but I feel like the more that I learn about Savannah the more I learn about my own family history and my own self. This move has played such a huge hand in shaping who I am today. I have absolutely no regrets about relocating and all in all I’m proud to call Savannah my new home.
By Amara Ezechukwu5 years ago in Wander
