Have you ever made plans just to have them fail? When these types of things happen, you need flexibility. It’s entirely true when it comes to vacations, as even the best-laid plans can often be derailed by weather, road construction, or any other number of unforeseen circumstances. Your vacation is pretty much at the whims of the winds of change.
Over summer vacation, our family has a one-week-long holiday every year, except for the Covid years 2019 and 2020. In 2022 we decided to go to New York City. To save money and get a shift of scenery from the typical hotels, we decided to camp instead of getting a hotel. It worked out well, and we had a joyously good time in New York City. However, on the last night of our vacation, calamity struck.
On the final day, after happily playing on Jones Beach, we finally headed for the final long ride back to our campsite. It was pretty uneventful, with nothing much to note, especially the part where we spent at least an hour driving around in circles. Our GPS continuously wailed at us to take a closed ramp to our campsite. Like a child or sibling that keeps begging for a toy, it was firmly set in us to follow its woefully inaccurate instructions until we got fed up and it got turned off. Among these faults, I attempted to help navigate using detour signs, but they were sparsely placed and confusing. By the time we finally took a look at our location on the map and found a detour parallel to our original route, we were exhausted.
Finally, after much repetitive debate, we arranged to revise our plans and rent a hotel room rather than return to our campsite. Consider the following points: First, my sister had salt on her skin from swimming, and second, she was in no state to wash herself being that it was way past her usual bedtime. After coming to a nearly unanimous agreement as my sister was now soundly asleep, my dad got on his phone and started to find a hotel. After yet another lengthy decision, my eyes drooping, we settled on the Garden Inn by Hilton. We ordered a room with breakfast as we drove to our hotel. After washing off we all agreed that we had made the right choice.
Think back to when you’ve made plans. Did they work out as intended? If not, then did you use flexibility, and what was the result? You can learn valuable lessons from the flexibility and maybe even find a better way to do things.
-Brian J.
Brian, I love the descriptive words that you use like, “joyously” and “calamity.” They really helped me understand how you felt or what was going on. Also, the questions in the conclusion made me wonder if this had ever happened to me and what my family would do if it did. When you said “After another lengthy decision” showed that you guys were really trying to think about what to do. Overall you wrote an awesome piece.
ReplyDelete: I like this piece because you represent the trait very well with a great example! I also like how you added tons of excellent detail, and tons of figurative speech. I loved the metaphors; especially this one, “Our GPS continuously wailed at us to take a closed ramp to our campsite. Like a child or sibling that keeps begging for a toy.” I like this specific example so much because; it really brings the story to life, and is pretty funny. Overall great story!
ReplyDeletebrian, I enjoyed reading your piece. I liked that you used the metaphor “Like a child or sibling that keeps begging for a toy.” to relate to the situation that you and your family were in. I also liked that you made the reader go back and reflect on the lesson in the story. Great job, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteBrian, I liked how you used figurative language on how the GPS was giving you a hard time and how you put the following points into your story to make a lot more sense to stay at a hotel. I’ve had an experience similar to this but my car ran out of gas driving to New Jersey. The lesson I learned was to be flexible if your plan doesn't work as planned, I can apply it for my upcoming plans.
ReplyDeleteBrian i like neatness and big paragraphs. I like all the evidence you have in your paragraphs. You have good punctuation and organization.
ReplyDelete