SCBWI prompt: Escape
When You Escape Into A Trip Of A Lifetime
A tale of coincidences and serendipities.
I wanted to escape my humdrum lifestyle. I was longing for some travel and adventure.
When I sold a single balloon creation for almost $500, I had my opportunity. I spent eight weeks on a road trip while traveling through 40 states.
It was 2012, and it was one of the most memorable periods of my life.
I left Houston on July 1st and returned at the end of August to drive my children back to college. I only had two events planned at the opposite ends of the country. I was going to twist balloons along the way to pay for it.
I planned to attend the World Domination Summit (WDS) in Portland, Oregon, during the first week of July, where I was scheduled to speak to an audience of almost a thousand people.
The other event was the Toastmasters International’s annual convention where my dear friend Yolanda Bynum was competing in the World Championship of Public Speaking in mid-August in Orlando, Florida. The rest of the itinerary was wide open.
On the way to Portland, I made stops in Winslow, AZ to see the Standin’ on a Corner monument; The Grand Canyon, The Shoshone Falls (shown above as the feature image), and the 604 feet tall Multnomah Falls, which I almost missed.
After WDS, I went north to Seattle, WA. From there, I zigzagged across the country, making stops in Yellowstone National Park and the Shenandoah River in West Virginia. You better believe I was singing along with John Denver.
I also visited, for the first time, my online friends Ann Zuccardy in Burlington, VT, Alvin-San Whaley in Northampton, MA, and Mitch Mitchell in Syracuse, NY. Holly Jahangiri wrote about how we reconnected because of that visit, having met in Houston a few years before.
All along, I stopped at restaurants to play and make money twisting balloons for children of all ages. In Syracuse, while working at a Texas Roadhouse, I met the family of Andy Dekaney, the namesake of my son’s High School in Spring, TX. It’s a small world, as Holly said in her story.
Speaking of a small world, though Yolanda didn’t advance beyond the semi-finals, she ran into a lady who had heard about her speech second hand. Yolanda’s speech was about how she didn’t get a chance to tell her mother, “I love you,” before she passed away.
As a result, the stranger she met decided to call her mother after many years of estrangement only to find out she has cancer. The lady gave Yolanda a big hug when she learned that it was her speech she was referring to. Now she decided to make it up and spend time with her mom.
The synchronicity was validation for Yolanda that she was on the right path in life when she was feeling low and disappointed. The Universe works its magic mysteriously.
The plan during the escape was to come back to Houston with more money in my pocket that I started with. Well, that didn’t happen, but I learned that I can be a bum and still support myself by twisting balloons.
Thank you, Amy Marley, for introducing me to the SCBWI daily challenge prompt.
As always, thank you for reading and responding.
More about me:
Rasheed Hooda is a published author and a regular contributor to ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium where writers support each other.
He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Get the Newsletter)
“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”
