My Travel Story by Egigayehu Ashagre

Henry Miller said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

        The day was my travel day to come to America.  I will never forget that day.  It was a very unsatisfactory day.  I was traveling with my older brother, my nephew and my brother-in-law.  

             In the morning, there was a torrent of rain and it lasted all day.  We had to leave from home earlier because the national airport is in the Ethiopian capital city.  The capital city of Ethiopia is called Addis Ababa.  It is 113 kilometers from my neighborhood to the airport.  Also it is more than two hours to drive.  We rented a car and we said goodbye to my dear, lovely family.  That day I got a headache because I cried a lot.  My family cried too.  It was my first time for me to leave my family.  

              The heavt rain made us late.  Between my neighborhood and the other city there was a small bridge and in the day, cars could not travel over the bridge because there was too much rain.  The water was going up on the bridge.  It was very treacherous.  We had to wait until the water went down.  After one hour the cars were able to accelerate again. It was 8 pm but we had two hours before we would miss the airplane.  The flight departure time was 10 pm.


         I had horrible day.  When we finally got there the time was over to catch an airplane.  We got to the national airport after 10:05 pm, and already the plane was gone.  I was hungry.  I had no money to buy food because Ethiopian money and American money are not equivalent.  So before I went to the airport I gave my Ethiopian money to my friend.  I was broke.  In the airport I only drank water.  After a few minutes we took the next plane.  

             When I was in the plane I felt two things, happiness and sadness.  It was my first time travelling by airplane.  Wow! it was amazing, because I saw myself above the clouds.  I wanted to see God but I couldn't see him because I thought I am too close to the sky.  Many things on the earth were under me and very small.  When the plane went up higher the only thing that I could see was the clouds.  This made me feel happiness.  

I couldn’t sleep on the airplane because I was imagining what America will look like.   During the long trip I had become tired.  It was more than 24 hours long.  So when I was in the airplane I thought of my family and cried.  The thing that made me sad was, when I thought of my father, my grandmother and my friends.  I remembered my father crying.  I said to him, “I am not going to die so why are you crying?  I am going to get a good education and a better life, you have to say good luck.”   Then he said, “I know, but I can’t say goodbye because I think I will never see you for a long time so I will miss you so much.”  I hugged him and I cried too.  I told him, “I will come to visit when I done with my school.  You just have to pray, don’t worry about me.  God is with me.”  Also my grandmother was crying and she told me, “ Concentrate on your education and come to see me before I am dead.  Don’t stay a long time because I am too old of a woman.”  I said , “Don’t say that, you will live a long time.”  To said goodbye, I gave her a hug.

         After a long trip we got to Washington D.C.  Then we had to take Delta airlines to come to Minneapolis, but we missed the plane because we lost the first one in Ethiopia. When I was in Washington DC I was surprised because I saw a train, I said, “Wow!”  It was different from an Ethiopian train.  An Ethiopian train travels from Djibouti to the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa 784 km.  The railroad between Djibouti and Addis Ababa is slow and uncomfortable.  It has 1st class, 2nd class and 3rd  class seats.  In addition I saw many long buildings, different people and different foods.  Everything was different for me. And it was beautiful.  After one hour we got on the plane.  We came to Minneapolis around ten o’clock.  It was also raining In Minneapolis.  I said to myself, “What?”  I was surprised.  “Is the rain was following me?” I asked to myself.
         
      Traveling is good because it teaches you something.  I learned to be patient. But I never forgot that day.  It was not a travel day, it was a terrible day.  You will experience difficult things when you are traveling so you learn to be strong.