Summer Adventure

Written 6/22/10
9:25 PM

I never looked forward to summer vacation much as a child. I never did much. My family would never go on vacation. The farthest from home I would ever go would be to my grandparents. I lived in Indiana and they lived in North Dakota. I suppose that's far, but North Dakota sure isn't that exciting as a little kid (nor as an adult, I might add).

I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get to take some great adventure in the summer. I would have to content myself by listening to the stories my friends would tell whenever one would return from a vacation.

"It was sooo cool, Jared! We saw Mickey Mouse! And I went to the top of Space Mountain!"

I would tell myself that I wasn't really missing much. It couldn't be anymore exciting than curling up and reading a book. That's what I would do during my summers. Read.

"And the water was sooo blue! I got to swim with dolphins! Dolphins!"

The first assignment of every school year was to write about what you did over the summer. While my friends would write of trips to Florida and Hawaii, I would write about seeing grandma take out her false teeth. Again. About riding my bike through the woods and picking the scabs off my knees. Again. I never had a good story to tell. I never took that summer adventure.

Well they never went to Ireland. It took me twenty years, but I'm finally on that summer vacation. I plan on taking full advantage of my time in Ireland. I want to explore every city, every town that I visit. I have twenty years to make up for. My adventrue has begun.