5.17.2022

Don’t get me wrong I have always loved to travel; the thrill of exploring new things that are unfamiliar is my adrenaline. I have been to several places from France to Spain and it is the reason that I choose to move across the country for college. However, this trip to the Louisiana territory has had a unique feeling to it, that is different from the other trips I have taken in the past. Having spent the first few days on the island of Grand Isle, I was really able to reflect on the aspect of chapters in life and the meaning of travel. Reflecting on my first two days of travel, I felt isolated and far away from my loved ones. Part of this is because I had graduated the day before our departure. Reading the Awakening, I realized that although I consider myself as independent, I thrive on social interaction with those close to me and unlike Edna who finds life in Grand Isle; I have found sadness in a sense in these first couple of days.

Comparison of Landscapes: Everglades on the top and the Bayou pictured on the bottom.

Being at Grand Isle, the landscape, the climate, it reminds me much of home in Florida. It reminds me that I only got to spend two days with my parents for graduation despite not seeing them in awhile. It reminds me of how despite saying that I have never experienced homesickness since moving to USC, it can happen to the best of us even if we consider ourselves as independent beings. Just the thought of being surrounded on this trip with strangers from diverse backgrounds, who would hopefully become my friends after getting to know them, flashes me back to when I first met my closest friends at SC. Those same friends that would be scattered across the world upon my return from this venture since we have graduated and that implies that nothing would be the same. Those memories and experiences of familiarity that I could not hold onto for a little longer due to the timing of this trip, just as Edna couldn’t hold onto her first experiences with Robert in The Awakening. Even if I could travel back to Los Angeles right now some of those friends would already be gone into their next chapter. Making it different to how I remember my experiences at SC before graduation, similar to the indifference Edna faced by Robert upon his return from Mexico.

Graduation Picture with my closest friends in Los Angeles, CA

Exploring the island on this trip, I just see destruction everywhere; reminding me of the fact that life can change abruptly from one second to the next. To me it symbolizes that travel isn’t always pretty. It shows us that it can be uncomfortable and that it can hurt. These first days of travel showed me that a hobby that I thought to thoroughly enjoy had the capability to break my heart. To be in Louisiana, I had to sacrifice celebrating graduation with my closest friends on Saturday and I may never get that chance since our group is splitting to different regions of the world, making our reunion to be unknown. For me finding my group at SC took awhile, and this trip reawakened that feeling of terror that I felt at SC when I couldn’t sense if I belonged somewhere.

Grand Isle destruction from Hurricane Ida

However, they say destruction can be a symbol of rebirth. In Grand Isle, remnants of piers from the hurricane have served as a crab birthing spot, and houses in the island are being reconstructed signifying strength. Yes, travel can be uncomfortable. But, that's okay as the journey should change you. It leaves a mark on your memory, consciousness, heart and body. It is this unpleasant feeling that allows you to grow. For me, this trip serves as a transition. It is helping me to prepare for my life in Boston in the upcoming months, in which I would be all alone again in an unfamiliar territory with complete strangers again. The experiences in Grand Isle these past days helped our group to bond in my opinion, and today for the first time in a while I felt as if I made new friends as we were swimming in the ocean. I had gotten so used to being in a single friend group in the past couple of years that I forgot how to make new ones. If I do admit, it is this terror that drove me on our first beach day to venture off by myself, making friends with a crab instead. Reflecting, It is better that I get out of my comfort zone now whilst doing something I love than in the fall with a master thesis looming over my shoulders.

Death can be beautiful to reflect upon. Through our exploration, we witnessed a pair of dead sharks washed upon the shoreline. Upon seeing this, I was immediately further saddened because of my deep admiration for oceanography and marine life that was instilled due to my Floridian upbringing. However, this discovery made me reevaluate my stay here at Grand Isle. For starters, it made me realize how disconnected I had been this past year to ocean life in Los Angeles; the one thing that has always kept me grounded. Personally, I have always been drawn to the ocean as it gave me a sense of peace. Seeing the sharks made me realize how lucky I was to have the opportunity to compose myself and close this current chapter in my life before starting the next which is alluded to be hectic. Moreover, these sharks also gave me hope. I say this because it allowed me to picture the previous night in which we as a group watched Deepwater Horizon. Watching a film based on a tragic story that plagued the area in which we are staying in, allowed us all to appreciate the nature surrounding us throughout the day in a way that would bond as friends, setting the tone for the rest of the trip and thus making me less afraid of the uncertainty in my move to Boston. That is what I think is beautiful in death and sadness, the hope of being near a new horizon.