Wheels Up
You start another travel year. A story yet untold.
Still hungry for adventures…
Those vacations feel like gold.
“Keep grinding through the workweek” – it’s what you tell yourself inside.
Daily cobwebs turn to boredom.
Time to get that rectified.
So, it’s off to pack your luggage. Give routine a forceful shake.
With the seat assignment done,
Now on to memories you’ll make.
Walking briskly through the airport, you can feel your soul exhale.
Enthusiasm growing
While you buy some junk on sale.
Thirteen dollars for a magnet? Not a bargain basement price.
But your day-to-day so cautious
Vacation mode far less precise.
Warm greeting at the gate. An agent says, “Enjoy your trip!”
With a nod, you shout, “You too!”
Before you quickly bite your lip.
All those awkward vibes are gone before you plop down in your seat.
Such excitement in the air,
There’s just no time to feel defeat.
Right then, a guy behind you opens up his pungent fish.
And some cranky girl across the aisle…
Wait, she really eats that dish?
You hold your breath with passion. And imagine shining sun.
A nearby baby shrieks intensely.
Exorcism soon to come?
You need this trip to energize. To wash away malaise.
Stuck in a sea of screaming toddlers.
All around those gross buffets.
You watch the human zombies. Mindless scrolling on their phones.
It’s an avalanche of lameness.
Just a long parade of clones.
To the bathrooms you retreat with haste. A moment to relax.
Both occupied, there’s no escape.
This trip is falling off the tracks.
You sit back down, defeated now, and hear a quiet voice.
It’s the child you were so long ago,
Who never had a choice.
Road trips and destinations. Where you’d never go today.
Exhibits and weird monuments,
Bland food from some café.
But those memories they live in you – a piece of who you are.
From when you first discovered travel,
Felt a rush within that car.
Those journeys never perfect. No vacations ever calm.
Filled with messy interactions
Could have made a great sitcom.
Today you visit places like you never even dreamed.
And yet you get yourself deflated
Because some demon baby screamed.
Enough of this, you say out loud, and look into the aisle.
Right then, it dawns on you with clarity…
No way to fight the smile.
Wait, my flight is full of seekers. People looking to explore.
Our common bond is hunger…
This appetite for something more.
“Annoyances will always be,” you tell yourself inside.
Has always been that way for me
A part of this wild ride.
Eyes open wide. You take it in. The chaos all around.
But somehow now it comforts you.
Wheels gently touch the ground.
