Nothing makes me happier than being on vacation. Sometimes my vacation is just sleeping in on a Sunday and reading the newspaper, or drinking coffee at 2AM. I will look to forward holidays, forever. Plans or not, I look out for a break from the routine, who doesnt?
Just last week, husband dear and I went on a biking trip, no plans, just on the spur of the moment decision. It was one of the best things to happen in the last few weeks! While I was at home one weekend I realised that a long weekend was due in the next couple of weeks. The 25th of May was Memorial day and we had no real plans, but if I were to listen to everyone around me, we were the only people who had no plans for the long weekend, so.... We made a plan. We decided to go to New York.. It sounded like a plan, some roaming around, some good food doing some New York things, but just a week before, we decided to go in the exact opposite directions and discover parts of Pennslyvania. We went to places like Hershey, Indian Caverns and some more fantastic places along the way. Our plans of going directly to Hershey changed when our friends suggested we go to a firework display a few miles from home.. Oh the joy! I've never grinned so hard in my life. This is where I had an amazing experience, while i was lost amongst the 500 colours, I didn't notice that I had lost one of my earrings. It was a special pair so i started looking for it frantically. Out of no where a nice lady volunteered her phone to look for it, she joined the search party and consoled me when I finally gave up on my search. She had no reason to be nice to me. (I found the earrings eventually and when I ran back to tell her, she hugged me and told me that she loves her earrings and she gets emotional about them.) She took 5 minutes of her time exclusively to be nice to me.
Later we drove to Hershey and man! That's chocolate heaven if there was any. While I was too busy enjoying the chocolate headquaters something rather unsavory happened. We were coming out of the Hershey theme park, when we encountered a racist idiot who said something mean (mostly on the lines of how I was a freeloader) I was hurt, I was thrown a little off mostly because my entire experience so far had been absolutely amazing.
But my greatest lesson was not about racism, rather it was about a deep introspection about our own country. Are we free from bias? Do we treat everybody that we encounter with the respect they deserve? Do we atleast tolerate others choices if not celebrate them? I don't know if I can give answers that are least bit reassuring.
2 wildly different experiences only a few hours apart from each other. Surely, it wasn't a people problem. It was a person problem. With so many beautiful experiences across the US, I have no intention of making this the an example about my experience, not at all. I don't want to say anything negative about any country. However, I want to think of this an an invitation to consider our own actions towards others. Every country is made beautiful only by its people and I see no reason why we shouldn't celebrate each other.
I know sometimes some really insignificant people ruin our really treasured memories.. even if it is for a second,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had such a fabulous day. don't let an idiot destroy it .. easier said than done. But look at the brighter side. He inspired this post didn't he?
Hmm, what an interesting adventure you've had. A lovely day with happy memories....they rest simply avoid thinking. Biases and differences happen only because there are closed minds in every place. Be it within your country which has biases based on religion or internationally, based on color. Think only of the happy not sad. Cheers
ReplyDelete@KalaRavi16 from
Relax-N-Rave
That was interestin . And well said. The last line- fabulous.
ReplyDeleteMy advice is just keep the good memory and throe the bad memories of that at like a slap on that people ..
ReplyDelete@dixita011 from
Cafenined words
Exactly it is a person problem. No matter where we are we will always find nice people and not so nice people. But we have to deal with both and that is life. Enjoy the great moments and forget about the not so good moments.
ReplyDeleteThe firework display sounds amazing! And the Hershey's visit too :)
ReplyDeleteJust a little tip: When you find yourself too bogged down by people like that idiot, remember that lady, who went out of her way to help you. There are bad people, and also good people. Yes, it gets frustrating when people act racist (and it's not even our fault about our skin colour). But there are always good people around. It's the happy memories that stick around in our hearts for a longer time. The bad memories fly away with the wind :)
Happy weekend!