Challenging Conventions 2018-2019

I’m now in a stranger’s house, who found me lying next to the road next to the famous abandoned bus 30 minutes ago. Obviously when I fainted, a new road was built next to the bus and during the construction, no one just happened to walk in the rotten bus and find a half-dead young man lying in there. I woke up and managed to crawl out of the bus, and fainted again, while this white-bearded old man saw me and took me to his hut right down the road. He gave me some fancy canned food which are pretty delicious, I’m surprised I’ve never heard of them before. I told him not to call the local police and I’m fine. Now he’s making some coffee in the kitchen. This is a really plain hut with few decorations, except for a huge bookshelf filled with books standing next to the wall. I walk near and start to examine the books. A lot of them I haven’t heard of before. I casually grabbed one called Into the WIld just because of the name, and I see my name on the front page. “I figured you’re a big ...

It's been a long week, I didn't realize how tired I am until I lay down near the campfire while waiting for China. The next morning, I wake up in the same field but no one is there. Maybe they left to the town to see if anyone else needs help. Maybe China found her way back to us. I didn't notice that the ground was dry and the campfire from last night was nowhere in sight. I make my way into town and my baby kicks my stomach, hard. It feels like something's wrong. I waive it off because it's probably nausea. When I get into town, I am shocked, just yesterday the town was flooded and everything was destroyed. Today, it seems like everything is almost fixed 'that was fast,' I think to myself, refusing to see the obvious. I walk into a store with the apple logo on it to ask people what's going on. That's weird, since when are there apple stores? When I walk into the store made of glass (huh how did they survive the hurricane?) I notice people looking a...

I woke up to the sound of sirens blaring and people running around like another Hurricane was about to hit.  I looked around and saw my brothers and Big Henry but no campfire was left. I look to my left and a little girl is sitting next to me and staring at me.  She looks at me, "Momma?" I realize this is my daughter, I am a mom. I soon grab her and carry her as I stare at our once house.  I did not see our house but instead an apartment building with a pool.  I see someone running past us, I run over.  I ask her what has happened and how much damage was caused by the Hurricane.  She looks at me crazy and waves this block in my face. I stare at it and ask her what it is.  She responds," Its a smartphone, have you been living under a house."  I stare at her confused and think about what has happened to the campfire, to the hurricane, to my house. I start putting it together and ask her what year it is.  She tells me it is July 10th, 2018 and r...

Hi bloggers! Here I'm to release a breaking news: the once-dead Chris McCandless is still alive. This may sound like any other ordinary conspiracies, but it's not. Why? Because Chris McCandless is now, sitting in front of a computer in the West Hartford Public Library, and writing this blog to you all. You may be wondering: What is happening here? Well, it's a long story. Long story short: I woke up this morning on a bench, mostly because I was too hot wearing this winter coat for Alaskan weather in this moist weather. Sunlight casted on my eyes and they were so bright that it took me a while to get adapted to it. Sun, warmth, life. I was so confused. If there's a Guinness record for a person with the most questions at the same time, that was me this morning. But the most important question: Why am I still alive? I thought I was dying. Starved, froze, hopeless, on a bus in the cold, snowy, middle-of-nowhere, Alaska. Then I started to recall about those fairy tal...

On the blog, write a post from the point of view of either Esch or Chris. Imagine that they have been transported to 2018 in a time machine. Remember that Esch is experiencing Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (13 years ago) and Chris is going "into the wild" in 1992 (26 years ago). Choose a specific location or event to transport your character to, and  make sure you describe the setting or event in detail from the point of view of the character, showing his/her perspective. What can the character identify with in  your setting? What might the character like? dislike? be outraged by? be confused by? What would Chris or Esch notice?  I chose Chris McCandless finding out about the Trans Mountain Pipeline Controversy:       Woke up 26 years in the future, surprised and fascinated but it doesn't change my plans. I still left for Alaska, but instead of April I cross the Canadian border in May. I was making my way to Alaska when I saw a group of protestors. They...

Chris McCandless inside a Best Buy in 2018:  Tired, hungry and dying, I look around at the inside of the Alaskan bus for what seems to be the last time. My eyelids turn to anvils, falling, and darkness consumes my vision.  I wake in a cold sweat, a strange thing to experience when one is surrounded by temperatures consistently below zero. The air feels warm and smells some what sickly, almost like someone dumped hot tar around the bus. I open my eyes to find myself in a completely foreign setting: a massive parking lot. Anxious and awestruck, I look around and take in my surroundings. Stores and restaurants surround me, some familiar like REI and Toy's R Us, some I have never seen or heard of like "Shake Shack". A massive building looms overhead, "Best Buy". Something draws me to the doors and I walk inside.  Instantly, I am greeted with blinking lights and technology around every corner. Primal anger climbs its way from my stomach into my throat. This ent...

The last thing I remembered was dying on a bus but I guess I didn't die? Where even am I? I'm suppose to be cold, starving and left out to die but instead, I'm in a warm bed! Huh how strange. " BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" , a little black box screamed into my right ear. I open my eyes abruptly and I'm in a stranger's room. Before I could make sense of my situation, a grown woman bursts into my room. "Turn off that damn thing already!", she said. I didn't realize the alarm was still on and if I did I didn't know how to turn it off anyway. After a few seconds of staring at the lady, she got impatient, walked over, pressed a button on the box and the alarm turned off. Before I could asked her anything she said: "Come on! Get ready, you promised me you would help me pick out a dress for Sam's wedding." After she demanded me to go pick out a dress with her, she left. I got up, put on whatever clothes I could find and went to the...

1992- I thought I could do it. I thought I would be able to walk into the wild and walk out with no problem. But here I am now: alone and dying on bus 142. I snuggled into my sleeping bag, trying to ignore the dull throb and sharp shots of pain throughout my entire body. The smell of moss and old meat protruded my thoughts, causing me to bury myself even deeper in the bag, trying and failing to catch any drift of something that smelled like civilization. Mind over matter, Chris.   What you don't mind doesn't matter.  I repeated that to myself about every 5 minutes with little success in any sort of comfort. Seeking sleep and the bliss of not having to exist or think for a while, I shut my eyes and began to drift off. 2018- I awoke with a start. Sitting up I could feel my joints pop a little as they moved back into favorable positions. That's odd. Why can I sit up if I couldn't even move my toes when I fell asleep?  I opened my eyes against the bright light coming ...

Esch is transported into 2018, West Hartford: As I laid down to sleep, I pulled the sheets over my body. Chills ran down my spine. I shifted from side to side, rubbing my legs together in hopes to get warmer but I remained so. Before I knew it, I was sound asleep and dreaming of my sweet, innocent baby. In the morning, I awoke to the bright sun shining through my windows. I rubbed my tired eyes and sat up, looking  around my room-except, it wasn’t my room. The walls were painted baby blue and the furniture was clean and white. What was happening?! I looked to my right and spotted an alarm clock. It was 9:00am. “Skeetah!” I called, “Randall!” After no response, I decided to look around this unfamiliar place to find some answers. I walked out of my room and down this long hallway  which led to these beautiful stairs. I walked down and noticed many picture frames of our family- all smiles. I entered the kitchen and was delighted with surprise. It wasn’t no huge kitchen but...

Dear diary: It has been 26 years since I have written in you.  That is because I should be dead. Yet for some reason, I woke up this morning in the middle of Times Square and I have no idea how I got here, or even why I'm alive.  Is this some cruel trick Satan is playing on me from the depths of hell? Or is this a second chance? I have no idea, and I am confused. This place is overwhelming. I'm in the beating heart of capitalism, with neon signs, loud music, and so many people packed into this godforsaken place.  I can't take so many people. I never could, but having spent the last few months (or maybe 26 years? I don't know anymore.) living alone in the Alaskan wilderness, this is too dramatic of a transition, and it’s giving me a splitting headache. WHY ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE VOLUNTARILY PACKING THEMSELVES IN ONE PLACE LIKE SARDINES?!?!  THERE'S NOTHING HERE BUT ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THINGS NOBODY NEEDS! I'm starting to remember why I withdrew ...

      Okay, imagine for one second that you fall asleep in your bed and you wake up nestled among the leaves in what looks suspiciously like a forest in northern Oregon. You would probably go from groggy confusion to heart-racing panic because being transported perhaps thousands of miles in your sleep to an unknown place is no one's idea of normal. You’d probably wonder where you were, why you were there, but most importantly, how? The only explanation would seem to be supernatural teleportation but let’s take that idea one step further. Imagine growing so weak from starvation in central Alaska that you become trapped in the wild and death is inevitable. You fade out of consciousness after feeling at peace with yourself and the world... and then you wake up on the beaten down carpet of what appears to be an outlet store in the hours preceding dawn. Now, let’s be clear here, this is not a hypothetical, I actually died and became reincarnated in what appears to be my hell. ...

After spending a couple days at our neighbors, my family and I finally headed back to our house in order to assess the damage that had been done. While Skeet continued searching for China, everyone else began the long tedious process of cleaning up the debris that had been created in Katrina's wake. But as I went to drain the murky water that had pooled in our kitchen, I suddenly found myself somewhere else. The tan color my mom had painted on the wall was replaced with a pale blue that was peeling at the edges, the air around me turned humid and sticky and there were sounds of commotion outside. The two feet of water remained, however, and it seemed to me as if I had somehow gotten to a house down the street, which had also been devastated by the hurricane. I began wading through the water towards the window hoping to be able to find my way home, but as I climbed up into the counter all I could see were roads, all of which were unfamiliar to me. Men and women with ...