Titanic
The night of Titanic's sinking was a turning point in my life. Not because I lost my family and not because anything in my world changed. That would come 2 years later. My life changed because I realized that everything didn't always go according to plan. I guess that the end of the Victorian Dream has the same theme, but my life went as follows. My father always had everything under control. He traveled a lot, always did well at whatever he did. I didn't know at the time what he did, but he brought home enough money to give my mother and me everything we needed. We always had to play it down, no fancy stuff. But everything we had was first quality. I was eleven years old when my dad decided that he was taking me along on his trip to Europe. My mother complained, of course. But she never won the arguments and so when we left, she was ironing the clothes Something, she really didn't have to do that, of course, but in some secret pack that my father and her had made, to hire a maid would have told the world how well off we actually were. The day we left, she was ironing, not smiling, just kept working and judging us with her eyes. How dare we do this. How dare he take her son with him in his travels. It would be years later until I
We were walking into our berthing space. So nice. First class in any other ship. I looked out the porthole. Starboard side, just aft of the midship. Just in front of the third funnel, I guessed. How magnificent. We looked out to the harbor of Southampton. What a sight. Unpack your stuff, he said. It will then be sailing time and we will need to be on deck to wave goodbye to all the people who came to see the ship off. It was a historical event. The biggest most luxorious ship in the world was about to set off on her maiden voyage. We were part of that history. We should go on deck and celebrate. And so we did. Looking out from the promonard deck, we saw the crowds looking so far away and we were so high. Nothing like anything I had ever seen before. I looked around. Up at the funnels, the flags waving in the breeze, the sunlight on the water and the sky a beautiful blue celebration for what was about to happen. The lines were thrown, the tugs pulled us away and we set sail. I was stuck on that spot for quite a long time. The ship hardly felt like it was moving. Nothing like the shudder and shake of smaller steam boats. Was I really experiencing this? This wasn't a dream, I could feel the wind on my face. I just kept watching. People wandered away from the rail and moved about. But I stood frozen on the spot. I didn't want to lose one precious moment of it. We traveled on our way. The land retreated and everywhere people were looking up at this ship. My father was still at the rail, but I was at a vantage point on the boat deck where I could see around at all that was happening. I would live this moment in my memory many times, and here it was happening. Little did I know what that same boat deck would like be 4 days later. I would still stand on the boat deck looking around, but it was a different dream then. It would be night, I would have been awakened by my father only sometime before. And still half asleep, I would try to comprehend what was going on in this what I thought to be perfect world. But now it was Wednesday, and it was all so perfect. We sailed up the river, passing the docks and town. I suddenly became aware of somethng amiss. My father had offered his hand to me and said lets explore below. The restaurants perhaps. No, no father, I said looking behind us. There is a wake and that ship is being pulled away from the dock. Its coming for us. He turned and looked. Somewhat in disbelief. Well, he said with a laugh of one who is in control, I guess they've underestimated the pull of this ship. The powerful Titanic commands a lesser ship to come to it. We went back to the rail and watched as the crew of the tugboat and crew of the other ship moved her away. It had come as a surprise when the Titanic went backwards a bit, making a wave that pushed the other ship away. What an exciting adventure. I knew that this whole voyage was to be the adventure of my life. And although since then, I've had many an interesting adventure, it was in my heart always the most dear despite its unhappy ending. With the near mishap undercontrol, it was now time to find the restaurant. We were now quite hungry. Oh how elegant. Our little family at home would go to eat at all the best NY restaurants (well, the neighbors didn't see us so never questioned our modest home vs what we did away from home), but this was something else. I've heard it said time and time again, then and now - the floating palace. Yes, and to me it was the very best. An elegant restaurant at sea. I ate but didn't take much interest in the food. I watched. All the people, these incredible surroundings and outside the windows, the sea trailing by us. How incredible. Some people had trouble on board a ship. Seasickness. Not aboard this ship. After a long time and my father sitting there watching me enjoying the view and enjoying me enjoying the view, I turned and said. Its the best gift ever. A smile and we were
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2627
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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