by Angel M.B. Chadwick
When I was nineteen years old, I traveled cross country with my uncle, aunt, several cousins and my younger sister. I saw the world in its many forms. I traveled through West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Columbus, Georgia, Erie, Pennsylvania (I have family in Erie from my mother’s side), Johnstown, Pennsylvania (had family there, but my great aunt who used to live there has since moved to Mississippi) New York and most of all I traveled to Niagara Falls, NY, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, through Quebec. I had the fortunate experience of crossing the Rainbow Bridge over the Niagara River gorge that connects the cities of Niagara Falls, NY (U.S.) to the east and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada to the west. The Rainbow Bridge is a world famous tourist site and I felt privileged to be able to experience such a profoundly glorious thing.
But what took my breath way and stupefied me to speechless was seeing Niagara Falls very up close and personal. I still remember the waters spraying my face. I watched how hypnotic and systematically it moved. It was the most majestic thing I’d ever seen in my entire life. Niagara Falls generates power (at least at the time it did, I haven’t seen it in twenty years) for the entire city. Water is a conduit and can generate electricity and Niagara Falls literally lights up the whole city. I thought that was so awesome, resourceful and extremely smart. Niagara Falls is man-made which added to its authenticity and majesty showing that man can create such godly things. Seeing Niagara Falls for the first time was so deeply and spiritually surreal, like being in heaven.
I still to this day cannot describe in emotional context how, what it made me feel. The best way I can describe it, if I had to describe the feeling in at least one sentence, “it was like a resurrection, it resurrected me.” I say this because at the time this trip happened, I was experiencing my first years of college and I felt like I was a failure, I was totally burned out that first year and I was starting my second year and I didn’t want to go back. I was depressed and suicidal.
That summer, I traveled those several days with my family (a week and a half) brought me back to life and still to this day I’m grateful to my mother for pushing me and my sister to go and for my uncle and aunt for taking us with them. If I hadn’t gone I wouldn’t be here today, I can truly say that without a doubt.
The whole trip was like being in heaven. I ate good food in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, got to stand at the top of Skylon Tower an observation tower, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It’s definitely windy up there and I love heights, but that day being so close to the sky and so close to the edge I started to rethink that for a moment. But before I went outside on the observation deck of the tower I went on the elevator up to the top floor to a shop where they had the most beautiful trinkets and handcrafted creations of beauty I’d ever seen, some of them made of the most gorgeous crystal. We stayed in Toronto for ten days. I saw people from all walks of life, heard them speak both fluent French and English. My ninth grade French was quite rusty, but my uncle spoke and understood French very well. We went to the biggest mall, saw the biggest library there but didn’t get a chance to go in. We went to a Star Trek Convention they were having in Toronto. Yes, I’m a Trekkie from way back. I’d loved every minute of it.
When we came back to Mississippi I gave my mother two postcards with a photo of Niagara Falls and another of the Skylon Tower. She put them on her bedroom wall. Still to this day I miss Canada. I want to go back to Toronto and Quebec. It broke my heart when I left. I was born in Mississippi and raised there in a small town, but I never felt like I belonged there. I was always the unusual kid out who never fit anywhere.
But when I went to Canada that’s where I felt like I belonged. I never wanted to leave. I want to travel the world more take my nine year old son to the places I’ve seen, but also to places that I haven’t yet seen and want to see like the UK, particularly London, Wales, Ireland, and Australia, particularly Sydney. I hope to settle down and live in each of those specific places (London (UK) and Sydney, Australia) with my son while he’s still a kid. If I ever make it big as an author, director, and playwright I’ve always wanted to buy a house in both London and Sydney, Australia and live there, raise my son there for the rest of our lives. And yes, I’ve seriously considered dual citizenship (U.S. /UK or U.S./Australia) for us both, for one of those places, hopefully Australia, to live in Sydney permanently.
Biography
Social Media Links:
Buy Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment