Narrative Essay Example About the Visit to Grandfather in Tennessee

Introduction

It was a dull, chilly, and cloudy Monday morning, the day, I had planned to take a journey and visit my grandfather who lived in Tennessee. Long before we closed school for holidays, I had planned in my diary that on this day, I would travel to the countryside to see my grandfather, and enjoy the holidays with my cousins. Since my childhood, my parents had taken me to visit my grandfather’s place at Tennessee only once, so I was really looking forward to this day. As I set out on my journey and boarded the bus whose final destination was Tennessee, joy was written all over my face in anticipation of goodies and adventure that was awaiting me at my grandfather’s place.

Body

Since it had been quite a long time since I last visited the countryside; I took a seat next to the window so that I could have a good view of the road, which the bus was taking to Tennessee. Luckily enough, my father had allowed me to travel with his camera so that I could take pictures along the way, and also take some photos with my grandfather. Though the road leading to Tennessee was quite rocky, the journey was interesting and fantastic. I enjoyed myself so much since I was able to take pictures of wild animals like giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and hippos along the way.

After about five hours of drive, we were finally at Tennessee, and a bus driver announced that we had arrived at the final destination. I carried my luggage and followed the other passengers who were busy alighting from the bus. However, I realized that there were many people at the bus station who had come to meet their relatives. Since I was new at Tennessee, I felt like the odd one out as no one had come to meet me at the bus station. My grandfather had informed me that there was no need for anyone to come for me as I would easily find my way to his home.

As I took my first steps out of the bus, I looked around to see if I could see any similarities between Tennessee and my home town, but I noticed that everything was so different. The town was very busy, vehicles hooting, buses overtaking one another, people walking past one another with no regard for the other ones. I tried to talk to a few people to inquire about the road leading to my grandfather’s home, but unfortunately, we could not understand each other because of the language barrier. The people in the countryside were more conversant with the local dialect and none was able to understand English.

I had no option except to trek along rough terrain in the hope of getting some assistance from the locals. People living in the countryside seemed friendly, but we could not communicate due to the language barrier. This made interaction extremely difficult, and I was forced to use sign language to see if I could get any help. This was a very interesting experience for me because I had never used sign language before. I had to use my fingers and hands to make signs about how my grandfather looks, and point towards the direction where he lived to see if they could help me.

My grandfather was a short person, but huge in physic, and a well-known businessman in the town, so I tried to use my hands and give an explanation of a short person. However, after a few trials of sign language using, the people I asked seemed not to understand me very well, and ended up giving me mixed directions. After a few hours with no help forthcoming, I felt so exhausted and desperate because it was already getting late. The most unfortunate thing is that the countryside had network problems, so I could not reach my grandfather over the phone.

The surroundings in this countryside were amazing. Big farms covered with healthy crops and herds of cattle could be seen grazing in ranches. The area seemed productive and scarcely populated. The roads were dirty with no proper repairs. A vast majority of the place was covered with thick bushes, and wild animals like hears and antelopes were grazing freely. This peace of atmosphere gave me a feeling that I was locked in total wildness with no sign of getting any help. Darkness was finally setting in, and this presented more despair than hope since I could not figure out spending a night in wildness in a strange place.

After a long search for help and trekking, I had no option, but to look for a suitable place and shelter myself for the night. I carefully walked through the bushes, along the road and found a tree that had a lot of thick bushes around it, which were nicely covered. I felt that this was a nice place for me to hide for the night before daybreak for another search of my grandfather’s place. Since the night was very cold and it was drizzling, I took some of my clothes from my bag and covered my body from the biting cold.

However, I must admit that I was very scared because I had never slept in a bush all by myself in my life before. Luckily enough, before I could close my eyes, I heard the sound of a vehicle from a distance with lights approaching towards the direction I had made my home for the night. I quickly ran out of the bush thicket, shouting and waving at the car to slow down. What a relief it was to me when the driver politely responded to my call and slowed down at the place where I was standing. For a moment, I felt a sigh of relief and relaxed since lady luck had smiled at me.

The vehicle had two occupants who were very old, a man and a woman almost the same age to that of my grandfather. They introduced themselves and I did the same. Those people told me that they were on their way back home from their son’s wedding. I narrated my predicament to them, giving every inch of the misery that I had undergone so that they could help me out. The two couples were profoundly moved by my story, and they could not hesitate to offer much-needed help. To my amazement, the couple knew my grandfather very well as they played golf together. They gladly accepted to put up with me for the night and offer assistance to retrace my home.

Conclusion

On the following day, they drove me up to my grandfather’s place which was only a few kilometers away, and I was so happy to reunite with my grandfather and my cousins for the school holidays. When I saw my grandfather, he said “We have been so worried and searching all over for you, what happened?”, “Where have you been all night long?”. At that moment, we all sat down by the fireplace taking some coffee, as I narrated to them the experience that I went through having arrived at Tennessee. My grandfather thanked my rescuers very much for helping me out of the bushes. This was my biggest adventure in life that I can never afford to forget.