Travel

Time Warp

Jeanna G1 Comment

I traveled back to my childhood hometown last month. My brother rolled his eyes at me every time I pointed out things that were still the same. “Yeah, nothing ever changes around here,” he said. Visiting home was like entering a time warp; time seemed to have been suspended. Some people might think that’s strange, considering how much changes on a daily basis in our fast-paced world. And some people might even be disappointed by the lack of change. I, however, find comfort in the fact that things haven’t changed much at all in the 25 years I’ve been gone. The library, grocery and hardware stores, park, church, and bagel shop, streets, landscapes, homes, and apple orchard…all still the same.

Pilgrim Covenant, my childhood church

I consider my childhood home to be a large part of my foundation. So if it were to describe me, what would it say? That I’m steadfast and reliable? Old-fashioned? Maybe I’m just stubborn. Either way, in a world that oftentimes feels unpredictable and restless, surrounding myself with the familiar can be a remedy.

Will You Kissimmee?

Jeanna GLeave a comment

I just arrived in Florida on a business trip, and passed by a sign for Kissimmee on the way to my hotel. I can’t help but smile when thinking back to the first time I traveled to Kissimmee. Back in high school, our concert band participated in a competition at Disney. My high school sweetheart was not in the band, and he may have been slightly jealous that I was traveling with a bunch of his friends, and not him. He wrote me a note, and folded it into a square, and passed it to me at the end of the school day before my trip. Inside it asked, “Will you Kissimmee when you get home?”

I did.

He took up the guitar soon after that trip. We didn’t have guitars in the school band, but he definitely didn’t have to worry about me choosing a sax or trumpet player over him, especially since he wrote a song just for me.

Alas, the song was recorded on cassette, and I haven’t heard it in ages. I suppose that’s how romance goes. As George R.R. Martin wrote, “Life is not a song, sweetling. Someday you may learn that, to your sorrow.”