literary journalism pre draft

Whenever I go on a vacation it is an entire experience. I enjoy the packing and preparing. I usually even do my boyfriends packing too. I like to wait at the airport, and be excited on the plane ride the entire way there. To me a vacation is flying somewhere too far away to drive, and staying somewhere with the entertainment that I enjoy. Normally I go to a beach spot, however I sometime would go to mountains to go snowboarding. After talking with other people about their vacations, I realized that people go to different places for all different reasons.

The first person I talked to was a girl named Jen. Jen is twenty-three and is in her last semester of college. She works part time, and still lives with her parents. In the conversation I had with Jen I found out that she does not have to fly to a place to go on vacation. I asked Jen how often she goes on vacation and she told me, “once a year”. When I asked who she went with she replied, “friends usually”. Then I asked Jen where she goes and why? This is when I found out that she doesn’t necessarily have to fly to get to her vacation spot. She told me: “usually to cities, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, etc. and the reason...hmm, I guess just to see different places, and big cities usually have a lot of tourist attractions and things to do and see, cause it's nice to be able to say you've seen a lot of different places.” Jen also told me that she does not find it easy to get the time to take a vacation because “between school, work, family stuff...it's hard to find the time, and then when you take into account that everyone else going is trying to balance the same things, it can become hard to plan a time that's convenient for everyone.”
The second person I talked to was a girl named Veronica. Veronica is twenty-one years old and has a twenty-two month daughter named Kayleigh. Veronica is a single mom and works full time. I was able to talk to Veronica about her vacations before and after she had her daughter, and the differences between the two experiences. Veronica told me that she also goes on vacations about once or twice a year with her family. She said: “A lot of times we go to California or west coast states, [also] Florida because we wanted to go to Disney World.” Veronica also told me that all other vacations are for scenic reasons, “Upstate Canada because my mom wanted to see it, and yellow stone park because it’s beautiful.” Then I asked Veronica if it was harder for her to go on vacations now that she has the baby. She responded quickly saying that she does defiantly find it harder because before the baby all she had to do was worry about herself, her parents doing all the planning. Now she has to make sure that she packs everything for herself and for Kayleigh like food, diapers, and the stroller to name a few things. Veronica also told me that fortunately she goes with her family where her mother would watch Kayleigh if Veronica wanted to sit by the pool. However, when the entire family goes out, she has to be much more responsible and assume full responsibility.
Then I talked to Pat, a fifty-three year old married woman. All of Pat’s children are older, out of the house and living on their own. Pat said that she goes on vacation twice a year with her husband and family members. When I asked her where she went on vacation and why, she responded: “Camping, I don’t know why I would go camping. Other vacations are to relax.” Pat also says that she goes on vacations with her grandson, like to Disney World.

I have found that different people go on vacations for different reasons, depending on their personal situations. Some people have it harder then others to get the time to go on vacations. Also everyone goes for somewhat of different reasons. The impression I got from everyone is that they all go for some sort of relaxation and to spend time with family or friends. The main difference here is why and where people go. Some people go to go sightseeing, others go to just relax. I guess it doesn’t matter where you go on a vacation as long as you are relaxed going to see something and be somewhere that you enjoy, and are with good people.