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Hello! I'm Theodore Pythios, age 29, male. In this story I will tell you the magnificent story of hidden animals that don’t get the recognition they deserve. And later, when I show them this journal, I'll be world famous.
This weekend I'm traveling to South America to start the first chapter of my book. The first animal I'll write about is the translucent frog. A glass frog, rather. Let's just skip forward to that, shall we?
***
I sat the book down on the table with a feeling of hope. This was going to be a good trip, I could just feel it. I looked up at the grey ceiling with a huge smile on my face.
I woke up with a hopeless feeling the next day. I stood up from the bed and made my way to the bathroom. The bathroom had always been a place where you felt less clean going out of after showering. The walls were brown and had some yellow spots that I wasn't entirely sure were a part of the decorations. The smell that hit up when you walked in the half-broken door was truly unforgettable. For some reason it always smelled like rotten eggs and burnt hair. The few people that he had brought home to his apartment have always tried to be nice and ignore the small place. The bathroom was just the last straw of them never contacting me again. I sighed as I undressed and turned on the shower. I tried to not let that affect my day. Nobody wants to be grumpy and be in a plane for several hours.
When I arrived to South America I realized that everything I've done to get to this moment was worth it. I felt the air I breathed in, refreshing. I had finally shown the people who never believed in me, that I could do it without their help. After standing still and staring dazed at the streets for a few minutes I snapped out of it. I felt an embarrassed feeling and I felt myself blushing at how much of a weirdo I must have looked like.
I got to the hotel safely. I opened the door and the first thing I saw was darkness. I just looked at the dark room for several minutes till I realized I needed to switch on the light. I was so thankful for everything in the universe
that no one had seen that. I quickly turned it on and moments later my eyes started burning. I made a promise to God that when I got home I'd take a full half an hour to just look at my college degree that I was kind of surprised I had at the moment. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then slowly opened them. It took a few minutes for my eyes to fully adjust.
The room was small, although I wouldn't have expected anything else by the amount of stars and how much I paid for this room. The walls were a light red and the bed didn’t look all that uncomfortable I thought wondering who I was trying to convince. Everything kind of looked like it was smudged into one room. The kitchen, "living room" and bedroom were all together. There was one door by the bedroom which probably led to the bathroom.
I was exhausted my the flight so I couldn’t even think about the grease-filled room as I fell on the bed and fell asleep even before my face hit the pillow. Which resulted me falling asleep then my face hitting a pillow that pulled me awake. I didn’t even care as I fell asleep again.
I woke up with the worst headache.
I pulled myself up feeling even worse as I started looking for my journal in my backpack. My headache didn’t really like it as I started to write with a smudge writing on the thin paper.
***
It's been 2 days since I landed in South America. So far I haven't seen very much. I'm thinking about making my trip longer. The hotel I'm staying in is actually quite nice for a change. I don't want to give them too much recognition since the food here isn't the best I've had. Anyhow, I'm wandering off. I'll tell you more when I have time. Although I don't really like documenting my failure, I'm an honest man, and I'm not going to lie about my story.
***
I knew what I wrote wasn't entirely true. I have lied about my story. Several times, in fact. I guess lying about me not lying about my story is a lie itself. My brain was filling up with all these questions. I thought if this was going to make me feel so bad I should just erase it. You can only imagine my frustration as I realized I wrote it with a pen. I groaned and felt my headache getting worse. This was no shape to be in when you're out exploring. I still went.
***
My mind is still processing this but let me try to recreate the story as vivid as I can.
I was walking down the woods with my camera, and I heard a screech. It was loud and intimidating. I turned around to see what had happened. There was a fox not 20 feet away from me! I mean can you believe that?! I backed off immediately as a reflex of course. I took a few pictures of it from a distance. I know it isn't a magnificent animal but I've always been quite fond of foxes. It's just something about the way they scream. The scratchy, squeaky, loud sound that comes out of their mouth. It's truly fascinating. I'm wandering off. I still have yet to find any splendid animals. This memory I have now has given me hope to continue. I'm positive now that I'll find a glass frog this week. I'm going to go sleep but I'll be back to write about everything I found tomorrow afternoon.
***
I felt the feeling of hope. The warm feeling in your stomach that makes you feel safe and protected. It's been such a long time since I've felt that. I wanted to stay awake just for this feeling to never end or go away. But at last a yawn was brought out of me. I have been defeated by my dull human body functions.
***
I think this trip is really making me reflect on myself don't you think? I mean I think I've changed since I first started writing this journal. My patience for once. I'm really getting tired of staying here. I mean it's a beautiful country and the people here are nice. It's not like I miss my family. They still think this is a stupid hobby. I just miss my daily routine. I miss the way my pillow feels against my cheek when I sleep. I miss the hot showers. Hell, I even miss the old bed that always crouches a lot when I'm on it. I've never been one to have home sickness, but this is really draining me for energy. It's been days since the fox incident and nothing interesting has happened since that. I guess I've just been really embarrassed to write more in this book. But I'm finally came to my senses. I already feel better writing this down. I've never seen myself as an introvert, I think I really need to revaluate some things with my life and how I see myself.
***
Today is going to be a good day.
I feel like I’m getting a little sick. I always get a cold when I’m traveling. My immune system always fails me when I’m trying to have a good time. I’m not
going to explore for a few days. My mom always told me to stay in bed when I’m even the slightest warmer than usual. She really hated anything that could infect her.
It's been a month since I traveled here. I bought a return ticket back to Ohio for the end of the week. I'm really happy to leave. I can't say I'm not sad. I've had a good experience here. I really thought I would find something interesting here. I guess that only shows how ignorant and delusional I was. I'm just scared of going home and telling everyone I failed. I came to this country as a dreamer but I'm going to leave as a depressed, realist. I don't think I'm going to continue writing in this journal.
***
I've never felt so hopeless in my entire life. I thought that I should just pack my bags.
Halfway to the airport, I realized I couldn’t just leave this place. I didn’t tell the taxi driver to turn around since I felt that was kind of rude. I just used my drive to the airport to think about what I should do. Go home or stay here? I knew even before I started the argument in my brain, that this place has grown to be my home.
I didn’t even recognize the airport when we got there. I got out and took my backpack. I didn’t have any other luggage so the driver didn’t have to go out and help me. As soon as I saw the driver leaving I started looking for another one. I knew this probably wasn’t good for the environment but at this moment I couldn’t really care. I started to walk to the nearest cab with determination in my steps. As soon as I sat down in the seats and the driver asked me where I wanted to go, I had no idea what to say. I got out of the cab without answering or explaining why. I had my mind set on finding that magnificent glass frog. I started walking away from the airport. I got pretty far just walking. I still didn’t know where I was going. I thought I could just go in to the nearest forest. All I knew was I felt this sudden energy I surging trough my body. I truly believed everything was going to be okay.
I got really thirsty after an hour of walking. I didn’t even stop for a break. My brain was drowning me with anxious thoughts and trying to convince me I did a mistake. I ignored them all.
After another half an hour I stopped to take a little break and letting my legs rest. I was never an athletic as a child so I got tired and breathless really fast.
While I was trying to distract myself from the pain of my legs, I saw a forest.
As soon as I saw it I started walking again.
It wasn’t until I was in the forest that I could relax again. I tried to find a nice spot to sit for a while. It was already getting dark outside. I felt the exhaustion going through my body. I sat down between two trees. I looked around, a little confused about what I was going to do now. I just sat there for what felt like hours. I knew I couldn’t stay up all night. I tried to stand up but my legs felt like jelly and I hit the ground again. I made a mental decision to just stay here all night. It wasn’t all that cold I thought. My hotel room was way colder than this. I felt something on my hand as I turned to see it, my breath felt like it had been punched out of me. I shuddered hoping I wasn’t scaring it. I pulled the glass frog up to my torso to get a good look at it. It looked amazing and I felt as though a huge relief was lifted off my shoulders. I started to see black dots everywhere and the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was the glass frog staring back at me.
***
I succeeded.