The Audacious Adventures of Eliakim Littell

By: Faizan

March 18, 2022

Though Eliakim Littell would consider Boston his home, he lived in Jerusalem until he was seven. His father was a war correspondent for Network News and his last stop was Jerusalem, Israel. He was stationed there to cover the supposed conflict that was going to take place; however, no war ever transpired. At one point in the 1970s, his father was told to go to Vietnam to cover the war over there. His father refused, and instead settled in Jerusalem, writing a book that Littell said, “Didn't sell terribly well.”

Littell had moved and stayed in Boston after he turned seven; however, upon entering the sixth grade, he was swept back to his past with an extended trip to Jerusalem. The diversity of Jerusalem poured in from all around him: Arabs, Israelis, Italians, and Americans; they all enhanced his experience in this familiar, yet foreign place, leaving a life-long lasting impact.

Being an innocent sixth grader living in the Hasidic Sinai Peninsula, he loved what the Arabs around him were wearing; therefore, he dressed up in a traditional djellaba and keffiyeh. Being the reckless child he was, Littell loved skateboarding at the time. So there he was one day, skateboarding in his djellaba and keffiyeh, when all of a sudden some Israeli kids found him and started shouting at him; however, all Littell could muster was, “Can you say that in English please?” This left them very confused and they left him alone.

Jerusalem isn’t the only place Littell has visited in his life; he has been very fortunate to have traveled quite a bit. Italy was the next place on his list; Littell visited Italy to become fluent in Italian. He was very passionate about learning the language in college, and as he states, he studied, “Flash cards, lots and lots and lots of flash cards.” However, on the advice of one of his college professors, he also took a trip to Italy to further his study. He wasn’t sure if his parents would approve, yet, “Low and behold my mom and dad were like absolutely. Yeah, they must've wanted to get rid of me. So off I went and it was great!” Littell exclaimed. “I was pretty lucky.”

Littell learning Italian was in semblance with a romance novel; he wanted to learn Italian because of a girl. “The reason I studied Italian is because of a girl. The first girl that kissed me, I met her in England, and it felt almost like a middle school play date.” He felt guilty that he was her “disastro American.” A basic American that of course couldn’t speak another language.

They wrote each other letters back and forth for years until he eventually visited her in Teramo, Italy. He also spent awhile with her brother in their ocean house in Portofino. This gave him a beautiful seaside view of the raw uninhabited landscape around him. Though things didn’t work out, being able to see the beautiful city in person along with the sea made the trip memorable; it’s just as Littell remarked, “I don't live like a king, but I do enjoy, now and then, hooking up with somebody who does.”

Not everything went to plan during Littell’s trip to Italy. “You know, what I really liked was when things didn't go right,” he smirked. During his trip, his uncle, living in England, was meant to fly one of his old restored airplanes over to Italy to meet up with Littell. The problem came when Littell showed up to the airfield and his uncle was nowhere to be found. Now Littell was alone without anyplace to go; to his luck, this lady from the ticket counter at a small airport nearby took him in and introduced him to other kind strangers.

“I don't know if that happens in America at all but it did in Italy and it was just lovely to just depend upon the kindness of these lovely strangers,” he smiled. “You ever wake up in a different house and you forget you went to bed there? And then you wake up and you go, oh right I'm here. It just happened so many times for about a week. I don't know just mooching or—couch hopping—exactly! So I'm glad my uncle never made it. Cuz then I wouldn't have met all those people,” he reminisced.

As if Jerusalem and Italy weren’t enough, Littell also ventured off to Kenya in his twenties. He spent his time again “couch hopping” with different people but also traveled with packs of people. The main transportation system were minivans called matatus and he would be the one “white teenager” traveling along with the natives. He enjoyed his time in Nairobi specifically, where he was fed free food and met even more fascinating people. It really showed him that he’s okay when things don’t go to plan, and that bleeds over to all aspects of his life.

“I'm sure you have many teachers who plan! plan! plan! and they're very structured. I kinda like seeing things happen. It probably shouldn't be as much that way but I'm not uncomfortable to find out what happens. I trust you guys to take me somewhere interesting” he said.

Littell does regret one major thing from this time in his life, however. The fact he never kept in touch with the people he met. “It's just that I'm not good at that. I sorta wish I had been,” he recalled, as he instinctively took his phone out of his pocket and placed it face down on the table.

Littell also regrets the hot headed teenager he once was. When asked if he could change anything about his past, he said, “I had a girlfriend in high school and I feel it's such a weird thing, but I feel like I would've liked to meet her parents today,—not her. And apologize for the way that I treated them.” He paused for a while, silence flooding the already quiet library. After a deep sigh he went on, “I feel guilty sometimes about things like that. I think I'd like them to know just how much I looked up to them and thought about them positively years on.”

His ex-girlfriend’s father had a very successful high-tech startup that he sold to a defense contractor in Boston. This resulted in her family skyrocketing into filthy amounts of wealth, and being the teenager he was, he became cold and jealous. “I was just plain wrong. And I should've been more respectful and shared in the happiness of their good fortune rather than becoming jealous and bitter.”

However the experience wasn’t without its lessons, as he’s learned and grown so much from then. “So that's another thing I learn from my mistakes and I make a lot of mistakes,” as Littell put it.

Though that relationship didn’t work out, luck was on his side when he met his wife. Littell met his wife on a blind date through a mutual friend, however the date almost never materialized. He was given what he believed to be her phone number, yet when he tried calling it he found out it was a fax number. This didn’t stop Littell; he was determined to set up this date. So he sent a fax asking her out, only the fax number was to the school she worked at, with only one fax machine, in the President of the school’s office. Thankfully, the note was delivered to its proper recipient. “I lucked out big time. I knew right away that I was very lucky to have her number!” he laughed. “Yea. Definitely the best girlfriend that I ever could've dreamed of having so it's like don't screw this one up! That's basically what I told myself many many times,” he recounted with a twinkle in his eye.

Throughout the many lavish journeys Littell has had, one person has always been a key figure in influencing his life, his father; though he passed away in 1997, Littell still thinks a great deal about him. He hopes he’s like his father in all the best ways. He described his father as “mean, sarcastic and cruel.” But Littell also noted how, “He was thoughtful and he loved people.” His father wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t a bad person either, he was human with flaws, but he had strengths as well. Littell described how he would always invite people over for Thanksgiving in college when they had nowhere else to go. And all these students had the same thing to say about his father, “That he just seemed to love them. And that's— I don't know if there's anything more than that. He just really liked people, and was warm, and giving, and selfless. He was wonderful that way.”

Littell does what he can to make class as engaging and interesting as possible. Current student of his, Jahan Uddin said, “Littell’s an interesting guy, everyday with him really seems like it's its own unique journey.”

Another student, Aldi Demelli, who also has Littell said, “He kinda seems like he’s making everything up as he goes, but somehow it works, and it definitely makes class way more fun than if everything was already laid out.”

Littell’s many life and travel experiences have shaped him into becoming the compassionate, grounded, fun to be around person that people know him as. The one thing his trips have clearly taught him, that’s really stuck with him, and influenced every aspect of his life is as he puts it, how, “I’m okay when things don’t go according to plan.” It’s incredible how much one person can experience if they just simply allow life to take them wherever it leads.