Narrative Essay Sample: Escape From Hawaii

A well known travel website called Travel Agent Central did a study stating that 89% of people polled said that vacations are stressful. This number seems high at first glance considering the whole point of vacations is to relieve stress, however at a closer look, one can understand why the number is as high as it is. Certain experiences can cause more stress than relaxation, as I can attest to. When my family and me flew to Hawaii, we had to deal with the biggest tsunami in a while. This experience was not all bad however, and going through this allowed me to learn a few lessons: keeping calm under pressure, persevering through difficulty, and critical thinking and problem solving.

We got into Hawaii thinking it was a normal trip. The plane, the car, the hotel, the beach, all normal. However, that night was quite different. A loud, blaring noise jarred us awake. The next couple minutes went by in a blur; noise, red lights, frantic packing. However, for me, it was different. Everything slowed down. I was able to pack quickly and help my parents load up the  car, and I was only 12! As cars began to fill up the roads, gas station lines went down the road, and grocery stores were cleaned out. Hotels on the safe side of the island were booked out, so our options were extremely limited. My mom began to get nervous, slowly evolving into a frantic state of panic. However, she calmed down once I helped solve a couple of our problems. Firstly, food. All grocery stores were cleaned out, however most restaurants weren't. We were able to get Taco Bell after only a 10 minute wait because people didn’t think to try restaurants. Our other problem was shelter for the night. As far as my parents were concerned, our options were limited to sleeping in the car. However, I was able to think outside the box and solve the problem because I was able to keep my head. We are seventh day adventists, and there must be churches on the island right? Realizing this, we were able to find a church that was housing other Adventists for the night. All in all, it was a hectic night, but my ability to stay calm helped us that night and has helped me throughout my life.

The night was a difficult one, and going through some of the trials proved useful for later in life because I know I can do certain things. For example, we were stuck in a small car for hours with nothing to do except wait. Lines longer than several football fields were set up on roads for parking, leaving us with little options for the night. We had my little brother in the car at the time, who was two years old. So naturally, crying for hours on end was in order. For almost 6 hours, we sat in our rental car with a crying baby waiting in traffic. Now, when sitting in traffic for an hour in downtown Portland, I know it’s not that big of a deal because I’ve done it with a crying baby for a few more hours. Overall, my ears ringing for hours isn’t the worst thing to happen to me, but I know that I am able to deal with it because I’ve done it before.

Logic was a key thing that night, and it was logic that helped us actually make it through the night with somewhat of a normal day ahead. Even with all the alarms and flashing lights, I was able to pack myself and some of my parents' stuff efficiently and get into the car. There were a large amount of police helping guide people away from the coastline, but they couldn’t be everywhere, so traffic was extreme, even for someone who has had to deal with rush hour in Los Angeles before.However, I found us a back way out of town so we could avoid the majority of the traffic by finding the most common routes people took on google and avoiding them. Then it hit me! With all of the panic, I found a calm inside it. We were on the south-eastern side of the island, meaning that the tsunami coming from Japan would hit the opposite side much harder than our side. On top of that, we were flying out in 2 days, so by then, no flights should be delayed because the airport was more toward the central part of the island. With this knowledge, we felt a lot more safe than we did previously. Along with this, us being able to find a place to stay for the night is a prime example of my forward thinking. With the knowledge of an Adventist church system in Hawaii, I realized that people were probably taking shelter there. This logic and efficient thinking has been a key asset to me throughout my life, and those were a few examples of it. 

Our trip to Hawaii not only created memories, but allowed me to learn a few valuable lessons that I now excel in; keeping calm under pressure, persevering through difficulty, and critical thinking and problem solving. I was able to keep calm and not panic under pressure which helped us figure out what we needed to do to have a somewhat normal night. I can persevere through a difficult night without food, warmth, room, or sleep, which is something that has been valuable since whenever I have needed to go through something like this again, I know I can do it. Lastly, I was able to work through all our problems to try to figure out a solution. These situations all have helped me throughout life, and although I think the 89% number is a bit high, I can understand it more after that vacation.