Ashley Tyson
6/18/2014
Paper #3
Road Trip
! It was an impulsive resolution to the last five years of distance between me and
my brother. He had just completed his enlistment term for the United States Navy and
he was free; free of authority, commitment and structure. I can recall, during his various
visits home, a change in his personality. Even during temporary leave when he'd come
home to visit the family; he would invariably wake up before the sun, schedule each of
his meals and insist on a daily physical workout. I wasn't accustomed to this type of
lifestyle but I remember rationalizing his behavior with positivity. I say rationalize
because I hated my brother being away, and at the time, I couldn't understand his
reasoning for joining the Navy. I despised his new robotic persona; the way he folded
his clothes, his priority for matching and especially his sudden taste for rock music. In
spite of his over-protective demeanor towards me or his infatuation with trapping me
under the covers forcing me to inhale his vile rectal fumes, I missed it. I missed my
pestering, sloppy, erratic big brother.
! I remember feeling indifferent towards him the day he came home. Discomfort
lingered within me, I had questions I couldn't possibly put into words and I yearned for
familiarity. But I realized that my speculation and incognizant assumptions were defense
mechanisms, and, in truth, I felt the very opposite of indifferent; it was a self-imposed
fear. Thus, in a moment of what felt like an epiphany, I decided to suppress my
foolishness in a quest for the truth, so, naturally, I aspired a road trip.
! It was the second day into the new year of 2012 and the Spring semester for
USF was a week away, so...