Getting Lost
Recently, I made a trip to Lake Como in Italy. Lake Como is renowned for the beauty of their scenic landscape. It is a lake surrounded by large hills that are right on the water’s edge, and gorgeous mountains in the distance. Lake Como is about forty minutes by train from Milan, Italy so I, along with five other friends of mine, decided to travel there for a day trip and return by evening.
We all met up at the Milan Central Station, which is the main hub for trains coming to and from Milan. From there we bought the train tickets at a ticket machine, and we had two options, to either pick the train that would leave in fifteen minutes or the train that leaves in an hour and a half. We decided to pick the train that was going to leave in fifteen minutes, however, that ended up being a poor decision because we were incredibly rushed. It took a while for the tickets to print and by the time we all got our tickets, we only had five minutes to find our train. It was the first time any of us traveled by train so we did not know how to read the tickets or which train was ours. In a frantic rush we tried asking people passing by in our broken Italian, and everyone we asked would point to a different train. We heard the station bell ring for last minute passengers so in a panic we all decided to board the train nearest to us.
None of us knew if we were on the correct train or not until the ticket stamper came around asking for our tickets. He looked at our tickets and was about to give us a fine for taking the wrong train! In hopes to avoid a fine, we all blurted out the few words of Italian we knew, and him, realizing that we were all confused foreigners, told us that he wouldn’t fine us, but that we would have to get off at the next stop.
So when we got off, we realized we were in the middle of the countryside and all we could do was wait for the next train. The next train came about thirty minutes later and we were on the wrong train once again! In total, we rode on three wrong trains, and almost got fined three different times, but finally we hopped on the right train the fourth time around.
Getting lost usually frustrates people, but for me, it was a positive experience. I not only learned that I should always plan ahead for my travels and my studies, but it also gave me an opportunity to strengthen my relationship with my friends. There was something about struggling together that allowed us to trust each other and to know that we could depend on one another. Also, since we had a lot of time to waste while waiting for trains, it provided us the opportunity to have enriching conversations and grow in our understanding of each other.
We arrived at Lake Como about four hours later when it should have only taken forty minutes. Lake Como was beautiful, but surprisingly, I enjoyed the journey to Lake Como more than the destination itself. Trying to communicate with strangers about how to get to the proper train, solving problems together as a team, and trying our best to tear up when almost getting fined, were more memorable than picturesque mountains. This has taught me to be flexible with plans because they can, and did go wrong, and to adapt well in any situation I find myself in. I guess it is true what Ernst Hemingway once said. “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
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