Marooned to Salt Lake

Published on by Yinglan

Have you ever been to a dog park and seen the dogs run wild and free while their owners sat on the sideline chatting? They look just so happy, don’t they? Being off the leash?

That was exactly how I felt last Friday as I left for Salt Lake City after school ended. I felt free and daring, like I’ve just gone AWOL. It was the first time in a long time since I’ve been to Salt Lake on my own. The primary destination was the Family History Library and the secondary destination was to my doctor appointment.

I made the appointment Monday and had been excitedly planning the day since. To make sure my trip would turn out awesome, I purposefully told no one. So my mom wouldn’t be piling tasks onto my schedule and forcing me to rush home like a dog at the end of its play time.

At the start of the trip, I told myself out loud of the time I had, exactly 5 hours because I had to make it home before my mom otherwise, she’ll start asking questions of why I’m wasting my time searching for my lineage. So to coordinate the tight schedule, I parked the car at the Central Station and rode public transportation to my destinations.

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To get to my doctor’s office, I had to switch trains at this station. The train wouldn’t arrive for five minutes, so what better way to pass the time than taking pictures?

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Ten minutes later, after hopping off the train, crossing two streets, and climbing three flights of stairs, I had at last arrived at the reception desk. The receptionist glanced at me but didn’t speak. So I caught my breath and automatically spelled out my first and last name since I know nobody can spell my name when I say it. “I’ll let him know you’re here,” the receptionist smiled and I turned and walked toward the waiting area.

Immediately, I dropped my purse on the chair and began pulling my red down jacket and wheat-color sweater off. I was sweating. The weather had finally began to come around. I checked the time, still had 20 minutes, so I took out my camera and snapped some pictures.

Thank god for wi-fi, otherwise I would’ve been bored waiting. After being called, the nurse put me in a smaller room and checked my vitals. “The doctor will be in shortly.” She said and thus began another long wait.

By the time the doctor came in, I have caught up with all the blogs and was playing an easy game of Sudoku. He asked me how I was and I didn’t know the answer to that. “Well, I haven’t seen a doctor in almost a year,” I told him, “so I think it’s time for a blood check.” He began filling out the lab order, checking every test available while I continued talking, telling him my mom had been suspecting my hormones were imbalanced and thus caused my irritability, crankiness, and mood shifts. Honestly, if she didn’t annoy me so much, I wouldn’t be having this problem.

I also asked about my rapid heartbeat which was apparently something I discovered during the vital check. I was completely calm and at rest and yet, my heart rate was at 88. He seemed to disagree, saying as long as it’s stable, it’s not a problem. Obviously, I care more about my heart than he did. He sent me downstairs for some lab and said see me in 6 months. Oh boy!

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After drawing a lot of blood, I was once again on my way back to the station. This time, it’s to the Family History Library. The library is located across from Temple Square and that’s the primary reason I’ve chosen to use public transportation. The parking situation in downtown is a nightmare with fees and traffic.

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From the trees, you can tell spring has not yet made it to Utah yet.

The library was amazing. Although I hardly discovered anything about my family, I enjoyed the learning experience and now know exactly where to look. It turned out my lineage is ginormous and it will probably take me a while to dig through the thousands of pages full of traditional Chinese characters written solely about the families with my surname or hey, maybe a simple DNA test would do.wp-1458867105896.jpeg

Two hours later, after exhausting my effort in locating my distant relatives, I left the library and returned back to the station. It’ll not be the last time I visit this amazing place, I’ll tell you that.

As I exited the library, I discovered this wooden log cabin beside the library. What a rare sight to see next to a parking lot downtown!

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38 thoughts on “Marooned to Salt Lake”

      1. Yes, that is the one. It can be somewhat overwhelming at first. There are workshops offered on various ways/hows to use the library, and well worth the hour investment.
        Peace to you dear. JoHanna

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  9. Boy those mountains are ginormous!! I went to the doctor’s the other day and my heartbeat was also 88, the said between 80-92 was acceptable of course 80 being the best. So we share the same heart rate. What an exciting adventure you had, too bad your Mom wouldn’t take to the enthusiasm you have about learning your lineage and then you two could explore together, but I suppose we all have our own interests and that’s what makes us individuals and that’s a good thing! Just think how much fun it will be to sort through and learn all that you are going to…enjoy the journey!! 🙂

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    1. I guess that does makes me feel a bit better knowing my heart is beating at a normal rate. I’m going to look forward to research my genealogy and it will be her loss when someone asks her about her ancestors and she doesn’t know the answer.

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    1. Thanks, my tests came back okay, with a few things being on the high end of the spectrum but the doctor didn’t comment on it so I guess it is still okay. The library was indeed interesting. 🙂

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      1. Oh, that’s great about the tests! I’d love to trace my history, it would be interesting to see how far you could go back. 🙂 Hope you get to do some more investigation!

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      2. I’ve been researching on familysearch.com and it’s been kinda slow, mostly since I’m not good at reading Chinese and there’s not much resources in finding people in China. I think it would be a ton easier if one’s ancestors are Europeans.

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