An adventure in my childhood

This story happened a long time ago, It was the first time I felt like a man.

When I was a grade 3 pupil who was 9 years old, I lived with my father in wenzhou while my young brother lived with my mother in shangtang, a small town that was 50 kilometers from wenzhou.

We met every weekend, usually my father and I went to shangtang at noon on a Saturday. When I finished class, father came to school to pick me up and take me to jiangbin road dock, where we took a ferry to qingshuibu. It usually took us half an hour. Then we would walk to the bus station and buy two tickets to Shangtang. We used to have to wait a long time for the bus because the transportation was very poor in wenzhou 30 years ago. We just sat on the bench, waiting quietly, normally, after an hour waiting, the bus reached the station, then we could get on the bus to our destination. I usually fell sick in the bus which smelt terrible, and I often failed to prevent myself from throwing up.

The journey weekly seemed tough to me , but in fact,  it was really exciting for me because I was so eager to see my mother and my younger brother. Sometimes, father had some business to do, and informed me that we had to cancel our journey to shangtang, It disappointed me so much that I would feel blue the whole weekend, even the whole week ahead.

It’s was a Saturday morning in winter and it was snowing but there was no wind. I sat in the classroom, listening to the teacher’s lecture in a good mood. I was expecting to have a snow fight with my brother in the afternoon. I couldn’t wait to hear the bell that meant class was over. Farther came to school on time, but he told me he had some important business and we couldn’t go to shangtang. I felt depressed after hearing father’s news. Suddenly I had an idea that encouraged me to say:” Dad, I shall go to shangtang by myself.” Father was surprised by what I said. He frowned and thought for a few seconds looking at my eager face. He said:” We will go to the dock first and see if some one can take you to shangtang.” I felt very excited and thankful. After we arrived at the dock, the sky got graver and the snow got heavier. Eventually, father found a man who agreed to take care of me during the journey. Father looked a little worried, and urged me to be watchful. I nodded to him and was excited to have such an adventure.

After a 3 hour journey, I stood in front of my mother alone. Mother was so surprised that I had come here alone. I felt happy and proud and went downstairs to have a snow fight with my younger brother.

It was my first long-distance journey alone. After that, I fell in love with traveling because I found I would get a lot of interesting experiences during the journey, and these experiences would shape me as a person and help me to become a better man.