It was a peaceful afternoon afterschool, I was on the couch, sipping the ice coffee I nicely made for myself with no sugar, half milk, and full of ice, watching Deal Or No Deal. I love my life, my life is perfect. I have a fabulous family of 3, a great school, I am playing as the starting point guard in our varsity basketball school team, and I am very popular in school with great friends. My dad is a submarine tester for the US Navy, and my mom works as a professor in a university. Everything was perfect, I had the perfect life……until……that afternoon.

     I was immersed in the peaceful and cozy “resting time” I made for myself, then suddenly the door bell rang. No, it is not someone from the army informing me of my dad dying due to testing the new invented submarine and my “perfect” life isn’t ruined, my life is still perfect. In fact, it’s better now with the pizza delivery guy on the front door, delivering me my favorite pepperoni and cheese pizza with extra cheese. When I was paying, I can’t help to notice that the pizza delivery guy looked different. He wore a red uniform from the Bergur(A famous pizza place that is named bergur apparently), he is blonde, and he is in his mid 40s. Everything seemed normal about this guy, in fact everything is normal about this guy, but I can feel the difference of him and others. I tried to start a with him. For some odd reason, he refused to talk to me, but left me a note saying:”Dinner reservation the Foot Fingers(Another weird named restaurant) at 8 tomorrow. During the next day, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about that weird pizza delivery guy. Without the needed concentration for class, I got in trouble for zoning out while drinking out and forgot to open my mouth, so water splattered everywhere. Mr. Shoecleaner witnessed my whole idiotic behaviours, somehow forgot that there was water on the floor, and ended up slipping while walking to me. Mr. Shoecleaner has big steps, therefore slipping only on his right leg, doing a split sideways. He ended up tearing his crotch and was sent to the hospital, and I was sent to detention. In the detention classroom, I pulled out the note the pizza delivery guy gave me, and started noticed something weird. I have never heard of a restaurant called Foot Fingers, despite me being a total foodie and knowing every single restaurant in town, I have never heard of Foot Fingers before, only Toes. 

     School finally ended, I half jogged half walked to the restaurant, being nervous and excited at the same time. As I saw the pizza delivery guy, a felt a sudden swirl beside me, and I suddenly got sucked into. I opened my eyes again, this is a beautiful place, that I have never seen before. The place looks very futuristic, while looking antiquity at the same time. The place looks very new, while looking old at the same time. There was only me, and the pizza delivery guy, zoning out pondering something. Despite the huge change and difference of the new world I entered, I did not feel like anything was weird at the moment. It was like a dream, everything is weird, except for the fact that I have no idea that it is.

     “What is this place?” I asked with a billion questions in my mind

     “The Lebronjameslovestoflopland”

     “Why are we here?” I asked again

     “To travel” Answered by the pizza delivery guy

     “Why travel?” I asked

     “Good question, when we decide or do something, there is always a reason or a meaning behind it, so what are the benefits and significance behind traveling? From the famous book A Hat Full of Sky, the author, Terry Prachett stated “Why do you go away? So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving”. Terry Prachett explains that with traveling, we would get the opportunity to see different things, to learn the things that we have never encountered before. Despite this, more importantly, Terry Prachett emphasizes that with meaning behind traveling is to be different. As humans, we are changing every minute of our lives, no matter if it’s physical growth, or mental changes, but with the same environment and surroundings around us, we are only able to interact with the people and things in our bubble. However, stepping out of our comfort zone would give us new ideas and new experiences, to have “new eyes and extra colors”, therefore changing us to be different while improving, and can come “back to where you started is not the same as never leaving”.”

     He paused for a second, and then continued “From the philosophy book The Alchemist, a lot of interesting ideas and thoughts were shared out of it. Back to the question of “Why Travel?, another possible reason for travelers to travel is to achieve something, or to “find your treasure”(The Alchemist).  The main character, Santiago, had a dream of a treasure, decided to go on a journey to find it, and during the process, the treasure, or perhaps we could call it his “dream” was the motivation for his long journey. A dream can release the maximum potential in one, and the first women to win 3 gold medals in a single Olympics, Wilma Rudolph once said: “Never underestimate the power of dreams.” In the seminar, we discussed about the idea of “Maktub”, basically destiny. This not only is a wild idea that contradicts with the majority of people, stating that everything is the “destiny”, and is all planned out, but also leads to further questions that could be further pondered, such as “Are we able to change our destiny?”, “If our destiny is unchangeable, then why do anything since nothing is changeable”. Lastly, at the ending of The Alchemist, Santiago found his treasures. However, he realized that the most valuable thing he got is not the treasure, which is the result, but the experience gained, which is the process. A lot of times in life, we are so intrigued in the results, but neglects the valuable experience gained from the process. The author gives the idea that for traveling or trying to achieve a dream, the process is actually where we gain, learn, and be different, instead of the results.”
     The pizza delivery guy is starting to get tired, took a sip out of his cup, and then continued “Despite the points I’ve made above, let’s approach “travel” and “journeys” in a different perspectives. On this, I had an interesting and outrageous idea that has difference with the “travels” and “journeys” that we were discussing about. My idea is that we are traveling nonstop. When we think of journeys, the the first things we would think of is vacation and going to different places. However, if we approach “journey” in a philosophyical way, our life is a journey, the journey never stops and never ends from the day we get born until our death. If we approach “traveling” and “journey” in a more boring way, according to the dictionary, “travel” is defined as “go from one place to another, typically over a distance of some length.” Therefore, us going from our house to school is considered traveling, us going from room to room is considered traveling, so we are traveling nonstop. Then what about the people that are disabled, don’t they stop traveling? Moving our hands from left to right can be considered traveling, our blood in our body flowing can be considered traveling. This is exactly what I meant in my introduction when I said that traveling and journeys could be defined and interpreted in many different ways, there is not an end to the new ideas of “traveling” and “journeys. Back to my point of “we can never stop traveling”, it’s only about if we travel more or travel less. With more travel, we are able to have more opportunities and possibilities in life, which is more risk. With less travel, there is less opportunities and possibilities in life, which is less risk. In most cases, people are afraid to travel and explore new things that they have never encountered before, is because of the fear of risk. Different people have different mindsets, some people loves taking risks, some people don’t, and it is totally one’s free choice, but hear me out. Nothing in life is for sure, except for our death. The worst thing that taking risks is going to do, is us dying, but why does that matter when we are going to die for sure. If we take risks, we die, if we don’t take risks, we still die. Therefore, taking risks is a part of life that makes our lives more interesting and motivated, and is amindset that leads to success.”

     After this, I got sent back to my world. Not the restaurant, but my bedroom. That was a truly amazing unreal adventure, so I quickly wrote an account of what the pizza guy said as a part of my blog. 

2