Adam Labno

Mrs.Lesniak
World lit
11/13/19
My Trip to Poland

A thundering applause startled me awake,​ “What Was Happening?!”​ As I watched other

passengers on the flight, I desperately looked for an answer. No, the plane didn’t go down. No, it

wasn’t hijacked by a bunch of aliens--though that would’ve been one helluva memoir--it was a

bunch of Europeans, clapping that the plane had landed. To be honest, I never understood why

they clapped, “Oh look! We got what we paid for! And we didn’t die even though we probably

would’ve survived most situations! Huzza!” Anyways, I walked down to the pickup center,

where a wave of flannels, cargo pants and for some reason golf hats rolled the pickup center. I

realized I was out of place as I was being the lazy American who threw on a blue sweater, some

grey sweatpants, and a baseball cap.

My dad met with his friend, and we drove to the house he grew up in, which he still

owned somehow. I walked in. It was decided I would be staying in his old room, as he chose a

different one. The house was occupied by a nice old aunt, a sister of my grandmother, who was

quite literally the kindest little old person I believe to exist. I explored the house, seeking out

what trouble I could find in the next 3 weeks, learning quickly that this house had pretty much

been idiot proofed throughout 3 generations of “Labno”. I then found something that really

interests me; Polish sausages. I spent the next few days learning about the house and exploring

around town visiting places my dad bragged on and on for the last 13 years of my existence.

Around 3 days later, my cousins moved in, 13 and 11 years old, from Wisconsin. I was

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extremely happy, finally, fellow Americans who spoke English and understood my sarcasm!

“Daniel” and “Sabrina” were best cousins ever. I had never been on vacation with other people

my age, so this was a pleasant surprise and such fun experience to be sharing a house with two

others of my complex nature of being a ​gen-Z-American-teenager.​ After I lived with them for a

week though, I understood how I annoyed other people as well.

I then realized how I was even here. You see, my parents were split of the decision to go

back to Poland on a trip, having grown up in communist Poland was tough for both of them. My

dad personally wanted to go back to see his friends and family that he had not seen for almost 18

years, but my mom had bad memories, where my dad lived in a more suburban country area. She

had grown up in the city of Warsaw. So, living in a Communist city didn’t really treat her well.

She had bad memories she did not want to revisit. My mom stayed home, with my little brother

0who didn’t want to go because of his inspiring love and dedication to … Videogames …( I

sound like a boomer.) So seeing how money was never really golden for the Poland trip, My

grandparents paid for us to go, But hose sneaky old people had a catch! We had to go to a

wedding! The nerve of them! The day of the wedding, I was putting on my very american dress

clothes; Fancy dress shoes, Fancy dress shirts and then A good old Polo, You might be asking,

“Why a polo?” well it’s the magical mindset of laziness!

Me and my cousins did the most 2017 thing you could possibly imagine, and Take a group selfie

...with dog filters ...Not my greatest choice in life (And don’t ask for the photo because I deleted

it like 2 hours later). We all crammed into the nice white rental sedan, made by a company that

you probably I never heard, The car started, ​“chchch-Fooo-ghghghgh”​ and just like that we were

off! It was a hot day, I remember trying to hold sweat back from the microwave called a rental

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vehicle. But after 20 minutes of being cooked alive, we arrived to the oven, Normal people

called it “Church” but they should’ve really reconsidered turning it into a furnace building

because it was even hotter in there. After around half an hour to an hour ceremony I was finally

free from the oven, the wedding was over … but the fun was just beginning. We walked outside

after the oven became too hot for humans to handle. We began driving to the place they rented

out for the party, and doing what polish people did best, They knew how to throw a good party.

But they didn’t Realize there was gonna be a kid’s table, so they threw me and my cousins into

the kids table, I was 6 feet tall, and I was sitting in the kids' table … and it was incredible. You

may think that I'd wanna sit with the grownups...but me and my cousins found the amazing

opportunity to do something really Instagram worthy ...make 5-10 year olds take shots of pepsi

… and I joined them because I was a very mature 13 year old.

By the end of the night, ​they were more hung over than Bradley Cooper.

People may say “Why did you do that! That’s so rude and you’re training them for terrible

things!”, But do ya know how many bets they’re gonna win now? You gotta start em early! Now

whenever they’re taking bets with their buddies to see who could take the most shots, they’ll

win! I’m setting them up for success! (This was a joke Adam Labno does not condone under-age

drinking). But while the kids were getting drunk on pepsi me and my cousins went out to

explore. We ran through the woods to look for adventure, we had found a broken rope swing, so

we did the only logical thing and broke it even more, and took the tire from it, we threw my

cousin into the tire, and rolled it around, she wasn’t very happy with being the first victim. We

then stuffed my second cousin into a tire and we may or may not have rolled it into a tree. Yes, A

tree. To be fair it was a “complete” accident and we were never meant to “Harm” him but I guess

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things happen. We eventually ran back to the afterparty and a bunch of people were drunk, but A

fireworks show was starting soon! So we all ran outside and I sat down with my cousins

watching the Inspiring show, ​the little rockets screamed as they flew to their death’s​ and it was

beautiful. Shortly after the end of the night came to be and we all went home. Me and my

cousins were stuffed into the now cooled down microwave as it took us back to the house. I

must’ve passed out or something because I don’t remember the rest of that night, I just remember

waking up in the morning in that bed. But the week and a half left really wasn’t too crazy, I went

to visit my crazy rich uncle who owns a street, and his factory making ...light switches

...Seriously how did he get rich from light switches!? Anyways we spent some time at my uncle's

house, but we had to leave later because I was getting hungry. My dad went home the next day,

he had an actual job to do and he needed to keep the family in good condition. For the next 3

days I hung out with my cousins until they left on the fourth day, That was my first vacation with

people my age so I was sad to see em leave. I spent the week with my grandma, her sister and

my grandpa, Pretty much just hanging around the house, occasionally going to the best burger

place in the world called Frasses. But as the end of the week came I went home, I boarded the

plane and as it was in the air I took one last look at this wonderful place my dad had dreamed of

for years, And I knew… That one day I would be dreaming about it too.