TRAVEL. LIFE LESSONS
To Die Is Bad, But Not To Live Is Even Worse
Right before my beloved grandpa died, he gave me $2,000 cash. Here’s what I did with it.
One sunny day in fall 2018, my grandfather suddenly stopped during our walk.
With shaky hands, he pulled an envelope out of his pocket. ‘Inside is $2,000 for you,’ he said with the sly smile I loved so much about him. ‘You want to give me $2,000? Why?’ I asked in surprise.
That’s when my 95-year old grandfather told me that he had kept those dollars for almost two decades.
He bought them for me shortly after the turn of the millennium. At that time, it was my greatest dream to cross the ocean and travel from Germany to America.
When I was 14 years old I had a dream
Suddenly I remembered:
I was 14 years old. In the middle of puberty. I loved reading the English version of Cosmopolitan, watching Dawson’s Creek and Clueless.
I loved the English language and I dreamed of spending a semester abroad — but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
My parents were recently divorced. There wasn’t enough money. It didn’t seem the right time to live my…
