STACY CHI - A WORLD YET TO SEE

Stacy Chi loves to travel to as many places as she possibly can and she would've been on her trip across the world by now if it wasn't for her shopping addiction. From hiking up mountains to zip lining between buildings, her thirst for adventure know no bounds. Her new motto is to make every second count and she starts off her goal by binge watching all eight seasons of Vampire Diaries. Her work can be found on Literary Yard.

A World Yet to See
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​“After riding the gondolas in Venice, I went to Greece where they had the most beautiful architecture of white buildings and blue domes. Hmm, what’s that place called again?”
“Oh! I know! San...Santorini!” I yelled with my high-pitched seven year old voice.
She giggled and continued her story, “Greece was breathtaking! There wasn’t even a second when my eyes were closed.”
My mom’s stories would go on all night and no matter how many times I heard them, each time was better than the last. Most kids preferred mystical and magical bedtime stories of dragon slayers and princesses. I looked forward to stories that added onto my exciting imagination of places around the world. From the endless bedtime stories, I found out that my mom had probably gone to every single country and city in the whole world! Of course I knew she was exaggerating, but listening to her amazing adventures as a kid made my heart rapidly race in my chest. I was told that I had this bright, shimmering shine in my eye every time I listened to her stories like I fell into some trance. Predictably, her sense of adventure sparked my dream to travel as well.
I remember walking past the old tapestry of the world map everyday that hung in the living room wall. It was a gift given to my mom from my dad and from time to time, she would gaze upon it and find the time to think about my dad and their past adventure together. The tapestry somehow felt magical to me and it held the power to make me unintentionally smile no matter how bad my day was. Sometimes I would brush my fingertips against the soft woven threads along the continents, pretending to be a plane and imagine myself traveling from country to country.
“So what’s your plan?” my mom asked.
“My plan? What do you mean?” I asked confusingly.
“Where do you plan on going?”
“First, I’m gonna go to Paris, then London, then Italy, then Rome, and,” I said with full excitement in my voice.
“And where is all that money coming from? For the plane ride, the delicious food, the hotels you’ll be sleeping in, and way more. There’s a lot of responsibilities to handle,” she said.
            As a seven year old, a plan didn’t really cross my mind. Money didn’t seem to be a problem at all, but after being informed about this realization, a new challenge was revealed that I needed to overcome in order to fulfill my dream.
“Well, you could start saving up starting now? I’ll tell you what. For every chore you do around the house, i’ll give you 25 cents,” she decided.
After that day on, I did as many chores as I possibly could such as taking out the trash, wiping down the tables, and cleaning only the shelves I could reach. In order to keep track on how close I was in achieving my goal, I filled up mason jars with the money I earned from the strenuous chores and it went pretty well. I continuously filled up jar after jar and I felt a huge amount of happiness, as the glass containers began to take up all the space on the shelves next to the tapestry of the world map. Those days were filled with endless bedtime stories, house chores, and the constant joy of collecting coins. Due to my deep focus on filling up the jars, I never noticed that it had consumed my time and because of my determination to achieve my dream to travel, my plan was coming along quickly.
Then, high school struck and the glory days ended. My only motivation hung on the living room wall and it became a reminder of what my future would be like as I walked out of the door every morning to go to school. In order to continue working for the one dream, I began working in the school lunch lines, sacrificing the time I had during breaks. Although it was hectic at first, adaptability came afterwards and it became a daily habit throughout my four years. On top of that, I had a job at an ice cream store across school and my life was pretty much hell. At the end, I found that everything was definitely worth it.
As soon as I knew it, it was the end of my senior year in high school and it was time to move on to my next step in life. From chores at home to school lunch lines to a real job at an ice cream store, I made enough money to continue my dream towards college. With the enormous amount of help from the person who first sparked my dream to travel, my plan seemed to be in reach. I felt as if I was close enough to even grab it.
“Off to college and off to see the world,” my mom said as I was getting the suitcase out of the car trunk. “Just yesterday, I was telling you the story of going to Amsterdam in your tiny bed cuddled in together,” she laughed with a hesitant smile.
“I’m only going to college mom. I’m not leaving you forever.”
It felt like I was leaving her forever. I could see the tears ready to burst out of her eyes and I could feel mine doing the same as well. I wasn’t ready to leave her, but I knew I had to.
“Thank you mom, for everything. I love you and I’ll call you. When I come back, it’ll be my turn to tell you stories.” I gave her the biggest hug of my life and smiled trying my best not to pour my eyes out. At that moment, I turned around and began walking away as I rolled my suitcase behind me just as if I was leaving on a flight at the airport.