Today is Thursday, the 19th of May and in four days, eleven hours, and twelve, no, eight seconds– I will be in London, England. The first time I will ever step out of the country I was born and raised in.
I have always fancied myself a traveler. (Fancy me using “fancy” before the culture shock even begins.) However I haven’t had the opportunity to travel much. The farthest I have traveled was in high school. My mother took me on my first plane ride to Philadelphia. One of my favorite cities mainly because how much fun my mother and I had just roaming the historic and lively atmosphere.
Then later that summer I sat in a bus for sixteen hours to wrestle in one of the biggest wrestling tournaments in the world in Fargo, North Dakota. Despite a tough tournament and a hard earned life experience, I guess it was a fun place to travel to…. While I enjoyed these places, my big, first, dream-like trip came my senior year…
The Big Apple, the city, the east coast(and country’s) capital of theatre, late night comedy, stand up– everything that I love. I finally made it here at 18. Something about this trip, though, always seemed to bother me. I loved having a hotel room in Time Square. I loved walking in Chinatown, seeing shows on Broadway, walking among so many diverse cultures and people. Yet, I went with the high school sweetheart and her mother. While I am invaluable to them for joining me on this journey, I was on a leash.
Haggling with a man about a fake Rolex, or chatting with a street bootlegger, or even buying a ten dollar pack of cigarettes–these were the experiences I wanted to take apart in as a traveler. I wanted to push my boundaries, as I wrote in my previous post– I find comfort in being out of my comfort zone. Forcing myself to grow is so difficult and after being a lifelong wrestler, and boxing enthusiast… I understood you have to take some hits to actually get a chance to throw some punches of your own.
When I think of travel, I think of the following quote which ironically I didn’t know until a new friend introduced it to me last night. I suppose I can’t tell you what I thought of when I thought of travel before yesterday. Given the nature of time I am able to share the new information with you now…
“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.” ― Lisa St. Aubin de TeránThat’s beautiful isn’t it? When I think of that I think how short and sad my love life with the skies has been. I have been so lucky to see a good chunk of the nation, but even then I feel in need of exploring it. When it comes to the rest of the world? Oh brother… I am absolutely petrified and terrified in my excitement to throw some pick-up lines our Mother Earth’s way.
I mean… I did just use the phrase “Oh Brother” and used a weird relationship dynamic with the location in which I’m traveling with a serious face. THAT’S how excited I am. The point of excitement where I can barely hold a single other thought in my head, and especially not write about it clearly or with the usual gumption I like to think I bring to the writing table…
I’m ready for the world, I’m ready to flirt with London, every part of it. Every street, every drop of rain, and every ding of the dongs that ring from Big Ben. I want to breathe mass city pollution and London fog and be able to draw a line in between. I want London to remember me, just as much as I hope to remember it. Even if it takes a while for it to recall.
I end my first blog post specifically about my travel and officially on the theatre abroad blog site with a quote. (Get use to me using quotes, dear reader) It goes as follows..
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John SteinbeckI felt this quote was perfect given my metaphor used prior aka my recent fondness to comparing traveling with a courtship of some sort, and my love and inspiration from Steinbeck. As his book Travels with Charley is easily a favorite nonfiction piece. Keep reading, We haven’t even got to the good part yet.
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Read more from Mikey at https://themikeyreynoldschronicles.wordpress.com/.
Find out more about the U of A Theatre in Britain summer program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/theatreinbritain.
