Tell Me Something

1. Tradition

       Ever since I could remember, I always loved listening to my dad tell me stories about his life. When he fought in the Gulf War, when he watched the Berlin Wall come down, or when he hiked the Appalachian Mountains. I always thought of him as the bravest man on the planet. He was the reason I was so interested in exploring.

So when I was five, he made up a tradition to get me started; every year in July for one week, we'd travel someplace new. In the woods, in the city, anywhere, as long as we hadn't been there before. Every year I looked forward to doing it more than I had the year before.

       But this year, everything changed.

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" Are you excited? " Dad asked me.
" For what? " I replied as I stared out the window as my out to lunch neighbor walked her hairless cat, Fluffy.
" Don't tell me you forgot already."
" Uh, yeah, sorry... " I said, turning my gaze from the window to my dad, " What am I excited about? "
" Going to The Black Forest in Germany...? "
" Oh yeah! Yes, I'm super excited, " I said. I can't believe I'd forgotten. The trips we took were the only thing I looked forward to every year. When we get to our newest destination, I feel like I'm entering a whole new world. It feels like my breath leaves my lungs and won't come back until it's all over.
" Well I'm glad I brought it up, because we're leaving in a couple weeks, and I doubt you started packing, considering you forgot. " Dad said. " Remember to pack for two weeks this time. There aren't any washing machines in the forest, I guarantee you. "
" I'll keep that in mind. "
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I've never had many close friends, so there wasn't anybody special to hang out with before I go. Which is embarrassing when your parents keep asking you to invite over friends that you don't have. So I give them an excuse like, " He's at a football game all weekend, " or, " He's on vacation, too. " Of course they suspect something is going on, but I don't think they want to get into the personal stuff with me. I've never been the type of guy that expresses his feelings. I don't have good social skills either, so trying to explain how I feel would be like explaining to a first grader what surface area and interior angles are. Not that I would be able to explain that either.

On Monday at school, everything my teachers would say would go in one ear, and out the other. I couldn't focus. All I could think about was how great it's going to be leaving my dull, unexciting world behind this summer, and traveling to a whole new one, a world where anything can happen.