Connection to "The Road"

“It was the first time he’d seen the boy smile in a long time” Pg.19

     I can make two personal connections to this quote because I understand what the boy is going through in his travels on the road. My first connection is when I was a very young boy. My grandpa had passed away due to a heart attack in the hospital and I was sad and upset for more than two months because I would always want to see him and go to his house everyday and when he passed away it was extremely sad for me. We were extremely close and I looked up to him like a second father and when I lost him, I was devastated. What had cheered me up two months later was my mom and dad had taken me on a trip to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida which took my mind off my grandpa but even still today I cry because I miss him terribly.

     My second connection to this quote is when I was in Kelowna visiting an elementary for work experience school. A couple years ago I was visiting an old elementary of mine and the principal asked me if I would help out in a grade 2 class for a month, I agreed and when I got into the class I was swarmed by all the little kids in the class but off to the corner of the room was a little boy huddled in the corner crying. When the teacher got her students to stop jumping on me I went over and knelt down beside the boy and asked him what was wrong, he told me he had just lost his puppy and that he was really sad because his puppy had died. When talking to him I found out his name was Gavin and that his puppy had only been a year old. I felt really bad for Gavin because I had also lost a puppy at a young age and I knew exactly how he felt. My puppy had gotten out of the yard and when my dad and I went to find her we found her dead on the highway and I cried for months. It’s hard loosing your pet, especially at a young age. For the month that I was at the school every time I saw Gavin he was more and more upset each day so I decided to take things into my own hands  and I went to his house and talked with his parents about buying him a brand new puppy. They agreed to let me buy Gavin a new puppy so one day at the end of the class I stayed behind with Gavin and his teacher. I left the room and a couple minutes later I returned with a golden retriever puppy and as soon as he saw the puppy his face lit up with the biggest smile on his face, he started to cry, with a smile on his face. That was the best day of my life.

     These two connections help me understand the story better because it makes me realize the tough times the boy is going through with having to deal with disturbing scenes and the scary though of being alone in the world with only his dad and nobody else.