Cynicisms of a Tourist-Trap Employee

After working two doubles for the past two days, I'm officially exhausted. I have realized that something funny happens to people when they are on vacation; it (vacation) makes them act in ways that would horrify them if they were at home. For instance, one of my duties is to collect tickets on my train; tear it apart, give it to one person who hands all of them to me. When there is a child under the age of 2, the parents/grandparents/relatives think its hilarious to give these bits of paper to this kid, grip their hands around their wrist and have them "give" the tickets to me. (By "hilarious," I mean they giggle and baby talk the child who has been traumatized by my look of confusion) These tourists also think that they are the only people who have ever done this. ever. I get at least two of these on every train.

Yesterday, I had a group of 20-ish loud obnoxious people, who were related, on my afternoon train, and they were sitting by the place I occupy on the way down. hurray. There were 4 pre-teen girls who reminded me of Veruca Salt: loud, whiny and demanding. When I asked this group if they had any questions, they proceeded to ignore me and talk very loudly about their Dad who got blazingly drunk at the last family get-together. Marvelous.

Thank you Horace Walpole

~We are indebted to the English author Horace Walpole for the word serendipity, which he coined in one of the 3,000 or more letters on which his literary reputation primarily rests. In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that “this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word.” Walpole formed the word on an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. He explained that this name was part of the title of “a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of....”~ (Taken from Theasaurus.com)

I constantly find myself finding things that I wasn't "in quest of;" very fortunate accidents. Take for instance, my college of choice: Thomas Aquinas College. Fortunate that my darling sisters attended, fortunate that my parents insist I attend the summer program, accidental in the fact that I loved it and made a few very good friends at that program.

I find that I revel in these serendipitous moments. They give my true character a chance to emerge as I react to new places, new people and new circumstances. They also act as modern day adventures; spur of the moment quests in which the everyday mundane becomes somehow romanticized into a tale of heroic feats. Maybe they're just fun.