The exact definition of a ‘trip’ is ‘the act of going from one place to another; a journey.’ When most ponder the meaning of a so-called ‘journey,’ many think of traveling to a distant country or even to a nearby state, but, when the term ‘journey’ enters into my mind, I think not of England, France or Italy, but of a trip to the local supermarket instead.
I know what you’re thinking — what’s so interesting about the supermarket? I mean, how could a trip like that even compare to crossing oceans into other continents and exploring various cultures. If you are thinking of anything similar to the previous statement then you obviously have never ventured into the local market with my family. Actually, I don’t think you could even consider it a trip. In my mind, it’s much more like waging war against isles of food and dodging the average grandmother rushing to acquire a turkey before I do.
The adventure all starts out with the search for a free grocery cart. While in theory it would seem easy enough to find a free cart since stray shopping carts always seem to find a way into the open parking spaces keeping you from a spot anywhere close to the entrance. Once my brothers and I have split up and eventually obtained a cart that doesn’t squeak every ten seconds or veers to the right every opportunity, we finally head into the store itself.
Once again (not as easy as it appears to be) we have to avoid being demolished by speeding teenagers and your average power walker, we finally enter the accursed store. Now the real journey begins. My mother hands my brothers and I our separate list of food items that we need to gather before we can escape back to the van. I take a quick look around the vast market and my eyes become fixed upon the seemingly endless rows of food items.
So, the search begins. I rummage among the shelves scavenging for a certain rare brand of pasta and an obscure type of bread that my mother demands I find. As I slowly start to reach the bottom of my page long list of food items, which is now filled with scratched out food related words, my journey is finally coming to a close. As the family meets back up at the planned mountain of soft drinks, we finally start the wait to pay for our small hill of food.
After what seems to be hours, the food is finally bagged and paid for. My brothers and I start to mentally prepare ourselves as we near the exit. We finally walk through the sliding glass doors and head out into the blistering sun to attempt to find the car hidden amongst the other hundreds of vehicles.
As the search continues and all hope seems to be lost, I begin to develop a new outlook on life. No matter what the world may throw at you and no matter how hard you must work to overcome your own personal obstacles, always remember to write down where you parked your car.
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