After landing at the Louis Armstrong Airport, Thalia and I swiftly exited the plane for the entirety of it was plagued by nauseating turbulence. We had three hours to fill before heading down to Grand Isle. I immediately locked eyes with the enticing Smoothie King logo when entering the terminal. As a California native, I just had to have my first-ever Smoothie King experience. This, I concluded, would be the cure to our queasy journey. After consulting Thalia, I ordered a medium Angel Food smoothie. The sweetness of the icy drink melted onto my tongue, unraveling the best drink ever. Realization quickly settled in after I took my final sip: I was in Louisiana. Founded in Kenner, Louisiana in 1973, Smoothie King unexpectedly became my first taste of the state’s rich culture and history.
Not even a full week into our month-long experience, and a deep sense of camaraderie has descended upon our eight person group. From home-cooked, family style meals to group sunset swims, a tight-knit community cultivated in Grand Isle from simply existing together. Small talk about the exhausting heat and potential thunderstorms transformed into enlightening discussions over Hawaiian culture, familial relations, and personal dilemmas. Unfiltered and inappropriate conservations flowed past midnight. I initiated communal dinners by cooking meals every night with Nicole, and by no means, do I consider myself a chef. It is safe to say that we quickly adopted the openness of Creole culture that encapsulates their group identity, as depicted by Edna Pontellier.
“A characteristic which distinguished them and which impressed Mrs. Pontellier most forcibly was their entire absence of prudery. Their freedom of expression was at first incomprehensible to her, though she had no difficulty in reconciling it with a lofty chastity which in the Creole woman seems to be inborn and unmistakable.”
Edna’s immersion into the Creole identity was vastly different from her Kentucky norms. This behavior, in a way, influenced her rash decisions to fulfill her innermost desire: independence. Encountering expressive personas, like Adele and Robert, allowed her to view her identity in a new manner. Existing in the freeing nature of Grand Isle fostered the beginning of her personal enlightenment. Learning to swim in the alluring ocean was Edna’s first discovery of autonomy, relieving herself from the torment of the feminine prison. Similarly, our Maymester group embraced our own version of independence. Alone, we gained the free will to participate in sunset swims, in the same waters as Edna, in an attempt to regain ourselves from the suffocating finals environment back at USC. The ocean was warm to the touch, urging me to swim further out and rejoin my friends. Being able to mimic the characters in our texts is an experience comparable to none. This remains my favorite memory from our days spent in Grand Isle.
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
The lifestyle on the Isle heavily contradicts the bustling, fast-paced environment in Los Angeles. Our days consisted of engaging in a routine parallel to those in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. From speeding golf carts and the warmth of southern hospitality, to reading on the beach under the scorching sun. The population on Grand Isle is just short of 1,000, thus laboring close relationships amongst the Island. This community has bravely and repeatedly endured natural disasters through passion for their shared identity. Our group caught glimpses of these relationships via food: a bonding practice rooted in Creole culture. I do not consider myself an adventurous eater, yet 24 hours in the Isle, I was consuming fried alligator nuggets and venison tamales from ‘The Starfish’. This restaurant is one of few that inhabit the surrounding land. Our waitress, Tiffany, welcomed our tourism with open arms and drew us in with her endearing personality. We all ordered an assortment of items, with each bite bringing us closer to the long-standing history of Grand Isle.
I am a creature of habit. Leaving California for a whole month led to thousands of worries. Much like Edna Pontellier, I long anticipated Grand Isle for the uncertainty of my individual growth. Her days spent on the island unleashed a dormant longing for self-expression under oppression. Although my experience differs from Edna and Kate Chopin, I realized that I often suppress myself for the desire of constant control and repetition. Being in Grand Isle started to strip these layers away. The immediate calmness of our surroundings forced feelings of comfortability. While Edna’s path ultimately led to her demise in the ocean in a final act of self-determination, I leave with an alternative journey of personal discovery. I depart with an awakened sense of living deliberately so as to not allow my fears dictate my decisions.
