A Dream and A Thought or Two

 

For the second night in a row, I’ve had the same dream. I’m at the airport in Perú and suddenly I realize I don’t have my passport on me. I start to explain my situation to a woman, an employee of the airline, and she replies back in a language I can’t understand. I try to speak Spanish again. Then she speaks another language. I try to speak English and she finally replies back in Spanish. Suddenly, two policemen arrest me. And then, the dream uneventfully ends. 

 

This is my first time leaving the country and probably the reason I’m having strange dreams. 

In my life, I’ve only visited a handful of places in the United States: Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, and Pittsburgh….

And once, my roommate and I decided to drive from Chicago to Austin, Texas to see my friend. Then my friend, my roommate, and I decided to drive to Big Bend National Park, located on the border of Texas and Mexico. MY BIG AMERICAN ADVENTURE! ….Of course, an American adventure would not be complete without an uncomfortable stop at Border Patrol, where my Lithuanian roommate was questioned about her current visa status. The Border Patrolman’s first name was J.P. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. As he used his super, American computer to check my roommate’s visa status, he told us about how he wanted to grow up to play guitar professionally. Don’t we all want to grow up to be a different person? Even the border patrol guy? Well, this story also has a dull ending. Eventually, JP confirmed my roommate’s visa status and he let us go.  

 

Nonetheless, I’ve always dreamed about traveling outside the country. While at Big Bend National Park, I saw the Rio Grande, the lanky river separating Mexico and the United States. For some reason, I always imagined Mexico to look vastly different than United States, especially at the border. In truth, they look the same. Mexico disappointedly looks like the United States and the United States disappointedly looks like Mexico. Our differences we know, we can count them on our hands and feet, but it’s our similarities that always surprise us.