Gratitude: Day Nine

Today I am grateful for history.

Without history, we would not be in our present. I’m on probably my last train ride on my East Coast trip.

It is incredible to see cities that have been influential in the development of our country. Washington, D.C., where our country was founded, Baltimore, Philadelphia, where I sat in George Washington’s church pew and saw liberty hall and so many other things. New Haven, where Yale is. Soon, Boston, where I read about so many revolutionary war events growing up. I spent two years as a homeschooled student just reading about the revolutionary war.

And the train rides through historic swaths of country, seeing old buildings, and trees that might have seen the dawn of this country. Trees that have known many days. Rails that have worked for centuries.

During this trip, I have seen a number of friends, and that makes the history more personal. Not only do I get to experience new things, places, events, but I get to experience them with people I know. I get to laugh and smile and be in awe. I am traveling alone, but the traveling is the only part that has been alone.

I am making my own history.