Final Travel Essay Idea

For my final essay, I plan to expand my first two pieces from the class, Constructing a Scene and Describe a Place, to tell the full story of what happened on the Fourth of July in 2018 while I was on Smith Mountain Lake with my family. I will explain in more detail the little island we have claimed as ours as well as the actual boating disaster after the fireworks and what happened after to tie everything together. The main characters will obviously be myself, my dad, my mom, and my aunt as well as some minor characters being my brother, my cousins, and my aunt's boyfriend. I will continue to use the internal thoughts as I did in the original pieces but continue to add more as well as more clear dialogue between the main characters. I will also try to switch the essay into present tense to create more suspense with the audience as to what will happen on the boat. My idea for an overall theme is that through the harsh and frightening times while traveling, there is always a greater lesson to be learned as well as a theme of the remembrance of loved ones can help your prevail. These theme ideas are kind of rough right now but I will iron them out as I begin writing.