With less than two full weeks of school left it seems like everyone is talking about their summer travel plans. One kid in my class is visiting Yellowstone, another keeps talking about a trip to Disneyland and one girl is going to Germany. It all sounds like so much so every time I heard a new story I was sure to tell my parents, sure they would get the hint. I even started to ask “doesn’t that sound like fun?” They agreed that all of the trips sounded fun, but when I asked if we could go there, I kept hearing “I don’t think so,” and “not this year,” they changed what they said each time but they all boiled down to “no.”
Convinced that I was being too subtle I started ask my parents if we could take a big trip this summer at every opportunity I could, I even made some suggestions of places we could visit. I got so frustrated at hearing variations on “no” that I yelled “you never let me do anything fun!” and stormed away from the dinner table.
I flopped down on my bed and with my voice muffled by my pillow told Josefina, Addy and Grace that I had the worst family ever.
It wasn’t long before my mom came into my room. I sat up and told her that it wasn’t fair that everyone else gets to go new places and do exciting things this summer while I am stuck at home. She reminded me that I have plenty of things to keep me busy this summer including camp and other activities and that there will no doubt be lots of slumber parties as well.
She told me she would do her best to make sure I got to try new things and have fun this summer, but a big trip isn’t possible and no amount of begging would be able to change that. She encouraged me to use my creativity to come up with a plan that would allow me to have my adventure without a big trip.
I thought about it for the rest of the night, and when bed time rolled around I hoped that the answer would come to me in a dream.
When I woke up the only dream I could remember was that Cricket could talk and after realizing how smart he was my parents decided to send him to school. The dream was funny, but didn’t help at all.
At lunch I talked to all of my friends but they only plan they could come up with is for someone to take a really big suitcase and have me travel that way. I don’t like being stuck in small spaces so that plan was right out.
After school I was discouraged so I invited my friends Lydia and Cordelia over to my house to play with dolls. Lydia came up with places we could explore in the neighborhood and all the ways we could enjoy nature close to home. I am excited to try her ideas, but they weren’t exactly what I was looking for.
Cordelia suggested that we could pretend to travel with our dolls, which also sounded like fun but not quite the adventure I wanted.
I remembered a book we read in my class and said “I wish I was like flat Stanley, I bet if I could be mailed my parents would let me travel.” After I said that, Cordelia’s eyes got big and I could tell she had an idea. She was so excited we had to ask her to repeat herself because her words got all mixed up the first time. She took a deep breath and said, “We can’t mail you, but we could mail a doll.” Lydia and I both got excited, with travel as part of her story I knew that I wanted to send my Grace doll on an adventure just like the character in the books. We talked for a long time and made lots of plans until it was time for them to go home.
After they left reality hit me, it wouldn’t cost much for Grace to travel, but it took a long time to save up enough money to buy her and my parents might not let me send my doll in the mail.
Preparing to hear “no” once again I got ready to tell my parents the idea that my friends and I had come up with. After I explained everything they asked me lots of questions. I think the wanted to make sure I knew all of the risks and things that could go wrong, and had thought it through. After I answered all of the questions I was surprised when they said, “it’s your doll, if that is what you really want to do, it is fine with us.”
After spinning her around and Grace that she was going to help me have an adventure this summer. I called Cordelia and Lydia right away. Now I just need to find places for Grace to travel!