It's an essay.

I like thinking I'm a good writer. Here's an essay. That i wrote. That has numerous sentences beginning with "and" and "but". But it's just a rough draft. And I don't really care.

Ready, set, go.

Dax Guthrie
2/24/08
Principles of English II, pd. 4
Rough Draft

Lost Vegas

What a stellar idea, “Let’s take a walk down the strip with the ten-year-old Dax behind us and naught but his only slightly older cousins to account for his presence.” Idiots… Of course I blame those ignorant adults for stranding me on the corner of a busy Las Vegas street.
Although, the night had begun with good intentions- and by that I mean: it was a warm summer evening, my sister was getting married in a couple days, and my family was itching to see the Las Vegas sights. And a tour of the strip could have turned out completely harmless, if my relatives could have afforded to leave a bit of their stupidity at home. And I say “relatives” because it was not the fault of any particular group in my family that things went sour, it was a joint effort by cousins, siblings, parents, everyone, to leave me on that corner.
The idiot parade had begun at a slow pace- at some brilliant Las Vegas locations, like the Coke and the M&M factories. We all strolled through these semi-historic monuments and after learning a few colors I never knew existed, we, my family and I, all stopped at a corner store to group up. And while a few of us ventured within to take care of “business”, I stayed out in front. And as I stood there, I sought an outlet for my attention (being the energetic ten-year-old I was), and what I found was a gigantic street map. The thing took up about half of the wall I was facing- and although I didn’t know any of the streets named on it, I was still sufficiently entertained. This street goes to that… this one’s going diagonal…. Boy, that’s a funny name for a street. The noisy road behind me made it difficult to concentrate. They should be done by now, I thought after a second or two. So I turned back around.
A wild gaze took hold of my eyes as I desperately looked: to the ground, they were just standing here, up a little higher, I couldn’t make out any familiar shapes, and down the sidewalk. Nothing. There was no one. Where was I? I sure as heck didn’t know.
I couldn’t figure out whether to run the direction I thought they were going or to stay put. If I had been left behind in a grocery store like countless previous times, I would have chose the former with no debate… but this wasn’t a store, I was in a whole flipping city.
Eventually my scrambled mind led me to a bit of railing that preceded a set of stairs to the sidewalk. I sat there. I couldn’t think, only sit and scan the sea of people for one that belonged to me…
“Excuse me, honey, are you lost?” she asked. This lady and her two daughters were looking right at me. I’m not sure what gave me away; I wasn’t crying, (I couldn’t figure out how to.) But I slowly looked up at her and answered with a nod, afraid of what emotions might escape my mouth if I tried to open it.
The quick, empty consolations that followed were of little help, almost as little the police officer who tried to help the situation. But I can’t say I expected him to do much, because the questions he asked were answered with scared, timid, confused, and hardly-reliable lost-ten-year-old-boy responses. “Well, what’s the name of the hotel you’re staying in then?” the officer had asked. I honestly had no idea… and it was about then that I realized just how stupid, how unprepared, how ignorant I had been this entire time. Two words, “Alexis Parks” could have been my answer if I had made any attempt at being useful, but what the officer got was a slow shake from the helpless cause called Dax.
Although my response was made unnecessary by the fact that my mother and sister came running back to find me that moment, I still remember just how helpless I had been. And how simple it would have been to avoid all the troubles that night. And I think, from all that, I learned a little something about expecting the unexpected, and being prepared for what’s bound to happen when you spend five minutes with your back facing your ready-to-go family. And no, I don’t really blame any of them for losing me in Las Vegas. I actually still think it’s a bit funny and a little ironic… how I got lost looking at a map.



And the reason it has such a crappy ending- I had to learn a life lesson for my narrative.