Another Station Always Awaits...

The tracks made their familiar click-click all through night. The scenery, always blurry, changed in the window like a television set. The rising sun, along with the setting sun, provided the perfect backdrop for the passing trees, mountains and occasional towns as the train made it’s way across the landscape. This was my first adventure on a train and every moment was vibrant and new, painting new images in my mind that would live to this very moments. We couldn’t afford the sleeper car, which although would have been a nice touch, didn’t really seem to matter much. My parents sat a couple of seats in front on my sisters and I, coming by to check how we were doing from time to time.

We played every game you could think of, from cards games, new and old, to all sorts of word games and if my memory serves me right, there was even a backgammon set that provided hours of entertainment. The trip was from Buenos Aires to Cordoba through the countryside of Argentina and to a kid that loved trains more than anything, it was a trip I would not only never forget, but one that would teach me a neat little, no, big lesson about life and all it’s wonders.

I remember the chaos of packing the night before for the trip and I use the word chaos very specifically to describe this event. Some folks pack with military precision, only taking the necessary clothes, toiletries and rations of food while others pack as if they have been evacuated by a nuclear scare. Needless to say, we were the latter of those two scenarios. Suitcases filled with too many clothes, too much food and well, too much of everything. But who cared, we were going to have an amazing vacation to a new place with the only people that mattered in the world at the time. The stars were aligned and the next day we would make our way to the train station.

The neat thing about train stations, along with airports and bus depots is that aside from being a departing point for your trip, they also represent the arriving point for someone else. The very same place that you are destined to leave for an adventure is at the same time, an adventure waiting to happen for others. More on that later. Back to the story.

We met all kinds of characters on the train ride that night. Some folks were very funny, some were nice and pleasant and others were downright frightening, on whom you made sure to keep your eyes on them at all times, just in case. In the end, like any worthy trip, it was always visited by a balanced mix of different people and gave you plenty of stories to tell when you returned home. So the train made it’s way, stopping at small towns, picking up passengers two at a time sometimes and still other times perhaps hundreds if it was a bigger city. Some left the train, some got on, but one thing remained constant, our adventure was far from over.

I kept thinking in my head, “I can’t wait to get there!” and would proceed to image all the things we would do. Go to the beach, eat all kinds of goodies and have a million laughs. When your ten years old, that’s about as long as the list of activities gets in your head, but it was enough. My patience grew thin and all I wanted was to arrive as soon as possible so we could start having fun.

Our stop finally arrived and we did get there. We had a great time, went to the beach, ate lots of food and had a lot of laughs, just as predicted. The time came when we got back on the train and made our way home. The adventure was over. Where was the next adventure waiting?

What I know now that I didn’t know then was that all those stations, starting from the first one where we left were the adventure. So were all the little stations in between. I was waiting to see my station in the distance to feel like the adventure had officially started but it began way before all of that. The packing, the frantic ride to the train station, squeezing the luggage on the overhead compartment, meeting all those interesting characters, watching folks get on and off the train, that WAS the adventure.

Too often, I feel that I’m waiting for my station to appear in the distance, hoping that my adventure will soon start. In grade school, that station was called high school. In high school, it was called college. In college it was called my career. Career is followed by marriage, then kids, then stability, then retirement, then this and then that. We all have our stations that we are waiting for in order to see our adventure start but I’m getting the feeling that our train is already moving. We meet interesting characters along the way, some funny, some nice and pleasant and some downright frightening. We see others get on and off at different stages we stop at along the way and most of the ride is taken with those few that will take the whole ride with you until the end of the adventure.

There is nothing special about the last stop except of course, if you realized that each stop is as important as the first. The station I’m sitting at right now is an adventure and destination point for someone else and that’s got to count for something.

I don’t know what station I’m going to see you at, if you will board my train or I board yours, but when we do, I can’t wait to hear about your adventure and where it started.

much steam love
~adrian

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