My Trip

Eric Hayes
January 25, 2009
AP English III
Narrative
Topic #3


“I’m aint trying to go to freaking Orlando, I just want to stay at home and chill!” This is what I told my mother back in May of 2007, when she informed the family that she had planned a week and a half trip to Orlando, FL for the family. When my mother uses the words trip and family in the same sentence it means two things; one, everyone but my father would attend, meaning my mommy would have to tend to my sisters Kc and Kelsey, the one year old Twins, Eva and Evan, and me. And two, there would be a lot of screaming and yelling and I knew I wouldn’t enjoy any minute of this family vacation. This trip was supposedly planned for my sister as a graduation trip; it later turned into a conjoined graduation trip with one of my mother friends, who child was also graduating from the 8th grade with my sister Kc. I didn’t want to go but as soon as I found out that we were leaving the day before football camp started, I really didn’t want go. When I told my mother all I wanted to do was chill at home for the summer, I really meant it. Most people like to travel and do real fun, exciting things for summer, don’t get me wrong I enjoy doing stuff like that too, I just don’t like doing it a lot or when it interferes with something feel is more important. This trip and I were not going to get along, it was going to cause me to miss out on making money and playing football, the two most precious things to me, sports and cash money.

I tried everything to get out of this trip, I started cutting up at school, staying out late doing stupid stuff, I wanted to get in trouble so I didn’t have to go. Three days before we were supposed to leave I sat down with my parents and tried to convince them to let me stay home, but my mother came right out the blocks with a “No, you’re going.” That’s when she thought she could change my mind with a surprise trip to Disney World. Did she think I was 5 or something? I asked her did she really think Disney world was going to change my mind, of all things it only made me think of how agonizing this trip was going to be. I seemed there was no way I was going to get out of this gay trip, shoot I even spoiled the Disney world surprise but it was no use acting crazy anymore because on June 7, 2007 I would be on a 8:45 am trip to Orlando, Fl.

As my father drove us to Midway I fell asleep, and as I rested I dreamt of myself working at the golf course that morning making $200 off caddying just one round, then I imagined myself going to the first day of summer camp, with everyone applauding the arrival of Eric Hayes, then coach screamed, “Hooray Eric is Here, Thunderbirds Draw Near, As Our Opponents Quiver With Fear”. My marvelous dream quickly ended with, “Wake up son it’s time to go and get on your flight, come on get up!” a violent shake to wake me up accompanied the voice of my father. Hugs and “I love you”s were exchanged as we exited the car, luggage in hand and entered the airport at 6:20 am. The pilgrimage to gate B16 was dreadful as I had to go through the metal detectors about 6 times and was on the verge of being strip searched for narcotics because the dog seemed to act funny when I walked passed. Little did I know things were only going to get worse in the Air?

I recommend that no one but bums ever fly Air Tran Airways, the prices are cheap for a reason. I knew the airline was crap when I saw the flight attendants. I’m not saying that they were ugly or anything because they weren’t, it’s just that their posture and extremely fake smiles basically said, “Oh my god I hate this, I hate this, I freaking hate this, wish I would have applied for Southwest.” Then the look she made when she saw me holding my twin baby brother and sister yelled, “Coons with children, oh my god I don’t know if I can do this today, I hope I don’t have to serve them.” This same chick had the nerve to run up to me smiling and say with her Southern accent, “Well it’s just lovely to see a young male with two darlin’ little babies.” When I told her they were my siblings and my mom and sisters were coming behind me she looked as though she had just smelt the fart of a lactose intolerant person who just ate ice cream with a glass of milk on the side. This was the crappiest airplane I’ve ever flown on. The floor wasn’t vacuumed, the seats felt like they were made from cardboard and stuffed with toilet tissue, and to make matters worse they had no peanuts. The whole flight I held babies while everyone got to fall asleep, so when we got off the plane I couldn’t feel my arms. I was ready to go home, bump Disney World.

I was looking forward to lying down in bed but this would also be delayed. Instead of staying at a hotel my mother booked a town home so that we feel nice and comfortable in Orlando. My mother kept saying that the place was close but some stuff happened and my hope of lying down in a bed would be delayed for 3 hours. After we got the rental car and began driving to our temporary home, my mother turned on her phone and she saw that she had a new voicemail. The message was from my mother’s friend, Mrs. Allen. Now my mother had been trying to call Mrs. Allen from my sisters phone to see if she, her daughter, and two grand children, had made it safely, but it turned out that Mrs. Allen and crew had missed their flight. So we had to drive around for forty minutes to wait for Mrs. Allen to land and I had to go back in the airport and retrieve them. We wasted another 2 hours driving to get the key to the houses, Mrs. Allen had also rented a home in the same area we had, and getting lost. By the time we got to the houses everyone was crying for food, I still wanted to sleep so I stayed behind and rested. About 6 hours had passed before I saw anyone else again. I woke up around 5 pm and was starving. I thought my mother came back and left me some food but I was wrong, they hadn’t returned yet. I eventually got up and walked this foreign land to find the nearest restaurant or store so I could feast. This walk would last me a hour and a half and by the time I returned to the house they still weren’t back yet, so I chilled. They returned around 11:30 pm with store bags in hand. They didn’t get me anything, I was devastated.

The next two days consisted of me doing absolutely nothing but babysitting, sleeping, and swimming at a local pool. I was sick of Orlando; it was hot, sticky, funky, and the people there have staring problems. Everyone was enjoying themselves but me, and then my mother brought up Disney world again. The agonizing pain I felt in my head when DW was brought up. My mom had a friend who worked there so she got free tickets when she needed some, so she and Mrs. Allen planned on going the next day. I decided to go to Disney World just to see some new scenery. The next day was my first time ever going to Disney World; I didn’t really want to be there because I felt I was too old and mature for such a child like places. Once we arrived I noticed that there seemed to be thousands of people there, and these where all kinds of people not just families with their children. Once we were inside the park we greeted by Goofy. It was strange because I felt a little excited to see him and take photos. I began to ease up a bit but I still felt that DW was gay. Technically it was gay, because when I saw Chip n Dale, my inner child jumped for joy. I loved watching the Rescue Rangers, so I whisper to my mother if we could go in that direction. She knew why I wanted to go in that direction so she laughed and said sure. Photos were taken and I was feeling kind of excited to be here but I didn’t want anyone to know that so I put on a front and kept acting grumpy. Then Cinderella asked all of us to take a group photo at the photo shop. I was in awe, I knew that this really wasn’t Cinderella but deep down I wanted to believe. The magic of Disney World was creeping up behind me.

Originally we walked the park in one large group viewing all the activities going on all around us. At one point I had to go to the bathroom, and I went, but on my way out I saw a Mr. Donald Duck walking somewhere, I had this itch to follow him and venture out on my own. I scratched this itched and began to room the vast land know as Magic Kingdom on my own. About 30 seconds later my mother called me on my cell phone asking where was I, I told her I was gone and she and everyone else could continue without me. At every attraction I stopped and got in line, I eventually cut lines pretending that my family was up ahead and I just went to the bathroom, no one questioned me. I took pictures of everything and with every Disney character I every loved, even some I didn’t love. Magic Kingdom was my kingdom, and I came out to play. With everyone else gone I had complete freedom, but limited funds. In my first day at Disney World I got on just about everything at Magic Kingdom. When I met with the group back at the front gate, ran to them with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. Disney World was the best thing I had ever experienced. Over the next 3 days I went to Disney World, two of those days I had my mother and Mrs. Allen drop me off by myself and I spent the whole day there. I went to every attraction at MGM Studios and Magic Kingdom, but only some of the stuff at Epcot. I did other stuff while in Orlando, like attend Universal Studios and stuff, but nothing could touch Disney World. When I was there I felt the magic transform me into a little kid again. Disney World was the best place in America at least on the East Coast.

The family vacation changed my life, Disney World changed my life. I felt pretty stupid because I acted so crazy to try and get out of the trip, but in the end I think I enjoyed it the most. My sister and her friend were happy to graduate but they didn’t seem to enjoy Florida like I did, and my mom and Mrs. Allen had to spend money and watch people so I don’t suspect they really had any time to enjoy everything. I felt kind of sad my dad didn’t come, but I quickly forgot about that as I put on my Mickey Mouse ears as we walked in the airport to fly back on that crappy plane to go back to home sweet home. I hope I can take another trip like that.