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2nd prize, Bacharelato, IV English Literaty Contest

My name is Kate and I’m going to tell you the best experience I have never lived, an incredible journey to South America.

I had been dreaming of this trip since I was seven, when my parents gave me a special lamp: a globe that I turned every night before going to bed and, thereby, I dreamt of the place that my finger pointed at.

I had dreamt of thousands of places, but only one seemed to me really fantastic, Argentina, that was, curiously, the place where my grandmother had spent her childhood.

Every summer I told my parents I wanted to go there but they were never able to take me. My grandmother, who wished to return, promised she would travel with me when I finished my law degree, but when it happened she had fallen very ill and, really sad, she told me that she couldn’t keep her promise. Despite this, her greatest desire was still to return to Argentina and she never stopped dreaming of this trip, so I decided to take her, although it could be very difficult.

Now, I am thirty, I am a lawyer and a few years ago I organized the most anticipated trip of my life, which I did with my grandmother.

The crossing was very long but it was perfect, relaxing and enjoyable. We went on board on a Thursday afternoon in the port of Barcelona and, some days later, during which my grandmother didn’t stop telling me stories about her birthplace, we arrived at Mar de Plata’s port, a very bustling place.

When we landed on the other side of the pool, she said she was at home, on her country, because she had always felt like a foreigner in Spain.

We spent an hour at the port, where there were mainly fishing boats from which lots of fishermen, who only wanted to meet their families after months without any contact with them, landed with tons of fish. This saddened my grandmother because she remembered my grandfather, who had been a great sailor.

After that, she took me to the place where she had been born and where she had lived for approximately twelve years. She expected to find it empty but there was a big surprise waiting for her. She met again people who she had left behind in this country and she had the chance to know some new people who belonged to the family and who she had never met before because he had to leave this country when she was so young with his parents because of poverty.

During the days we stayed there, I saw my grandmother laughing like she had never done before. The day before we had to leave she enjoyed an incredible dinner with all the people she had there and she went to bed very late. On the next morning, she didn’t wake up but her face was showing more happiness than ever.

She had always lived worrying to make me happy and I have to be grateful for it with her. I know she would like I could live in her country so I end this story writing from Buenos Aires to start a new life here.