Meaningless Meanderings

Familiarly Alien

The best “thrill” I ever experience with life is often caused by traveling. It's the idea of moving, the sights that I see during transit and the concept of arriving at an entirely new destination. That is what I love about traveling. Which is exactly what I am doing as I write this entry.

At this moment, am sitting in a small cafe in the Philadelphia train station, toiling away at last minute assignments before I board my next train to Washington D.C. Even now, as work takes command of my mental faculties and deadlines make up the majority of my concerns, I still carry that feeling. Adventure. New sights, sounds, and people. New stories to tell of old memories.

As I sit in this cafe, eating my sandwich, old memories come to life once again. The monotonous voice of the announcer blares through the speakers, drowning out the pleasant music that was playing only a moment before brings back old memories of my visit to a train station in Philadelphia over ten years ago, while I was still a child. The bustling crowds of people bring back memories of crowded streets during rush hour, and small corner cafes such as this remind me of little corner coffee shops that I once frequented.

My sandwich brought back the strongest memories. Most people would overlook such a thing on a menu: a wasabi roast beef sandwich. The first bite brought the reminder of old sensations through my mind. The tangy yet powerful taste of freshly cut ginger with the sinus-clearing “hot” taste of wasabi brought my mind back to a time where these tastes were new and alien to me. I found myself thinking of my first trip to a sushi restaurant, where I had both of these at the same time, but on rice and raw fish.

The importance of this may be easily overlooked by those who do not know me, but this sudden image gave me the reminder as to why I am traveling now: for the right to travel again later.

So here is to adventures to new places, of eating new things and meeting new people. I can only hope that these wonders will never cease, for myself or for you, my faithful readers.