Write On, Downtown issue 1, 2007

“Then something new enters the hero’s life. It’s a new ingredient that pushes the hero into an extraordinary adventure” (Seger, 2006, p. 319). This ingredient is implied in the introduction because we already know what the adventure will be. Now some heroes need a second recall to the adventure; although Ernesto’s parents tell him that he should wait because it is only three more classes left for him to become a doctor, he is sure about taking the journey and that doesn’t matter to him. Also when he goes and visits his girlfriend, he knows if he leaves, he may lose his girlfriend but he takes those risks.

“What we had in common:” referring to Alberto and himself “our restlessness, our impassioned spirits, and a love for the open road” (Guevara, 2005). Ernesto illustrates that life is all about taking risks, experiencing life without knowing what the road will bring them.

Although the hero might not know what lies ahead, he usually has someone to help him during the journey. In Ernesto’s journey, Alberto is his help; they go together in the journey, taking care of each other, and going through many difficulties that they encounter on the road. But for both, the help usually comes from the people they encounter in the journey. These people are part of the method they mentioned before, improvisation. When they lack food or a place to stay the night, there was always someone there to help them; they don’t take the journey alone. This relates to our own lives by demonstrating that our journey will not be always alone and that the people that we encounter in life are in many ways the key to continuing on the journey.

It is through the journey that the hero “is ready to move into the special world where he or she will change from ordinary into extraordinary. This starts the hero’s transformation, and sets up the obstacles that must be surmounted to reach the goal”