A day in the life of Charles Darwin

A day in the life of Charles Darwin

I woke up this morning feeling a little nervous. I didn´t sleep much. You see, today we were setting sail with the ship beagles. I was very excited but also scared. This ship was going to take me around the world. It wasn´t sailing from the harbour in Plymouth until late evening, but I had so much to do. I better get going, I thought while lying in the bed.

I went to the bakery nearby and bought a loaf of bread for breakfast. It began to drizzle on the way back but I didn´t mind too much. I ate the bread plain before I went to see my father, Robert Darwin, outside the church. We were going to pray for me to return safely from the journey with beagles. I can see the irony since it was my father who persuaded me to go on this journey in the first place.

When we had been in the church quite a while I doze off due to the lack of sleep previous night.  My father slapped me gently on the back of my head. I woke up and immediately realized what I had done. A dozen people were stirring angry at me. I tried to apologize in a tactful way but I don't think I succeeded very well. My father seemed embarrassed by me.

As we left the church he said "my son, this day is the first day in the rest of your life. Try not to disappoint me." He gave me a small package. Should I open it now, I asked. He smiled and nodded. I opened it slowly and was overwhelmed when I saw what it was, a shiny pocket watch. It looked like silver but I wasn't sure. My father seemed to be able to read my mind and said "silver with Implant of gold." He reached out his hand for me to shake. I ignored the hand and gave him a hug. My dad snatched but quickly hugged me back. We stood there a couple of minutes. I felt so happy while I stood there in the arms of Robert Darwin, my father. "Now you have no excuse for being late", he said with a smile.

As we stood there the sky seemed to open up and the rain poured down on us. We ran together to the closest restaurant. It was a simple restaurant but it had to do. We sat there for hours and talked. We talked about old times and the future, what I would do when I came back from the journey.

I looked down on my new pocket watch. I almost jumped up from my chair when I saw what time it was. The ship was leaving in half an hour. My father gave me a mighty hug and nodded towards the door.

I ran the fastest I could and reached the boat in the last minute. As I stood there on the deck, while leaving England behind me, I could se...