JUST LIKE JULIA

I remember the first flight I ever took alone: freshly 19, working a minimum wage job and purchased a ‘Name Your Own Price’ ticket off an online site headed out to the Wild Wild West Coast – California.

For a girl who had never left home (besides sleep away camp in upstate New York), a trip out to a different state by my self was an enticing feeling. I was chasing something…something of substance. Something that made me feel alive. One of my friends offered a bedroom for me at their house, where I spent the next week gloriously feeling whatever it was that I was chasing.

Now, I am about to embark on a new chapter in my journey – figuratively and literally. I think about my life and how it’s like a book that I’m writing, one page at a time. It’s funny because you might not even know that you’re writing a chapter until you’ve finished the past sentence. Then you look back and go: wow. It is what it is. I’m not clear yet on what this chapter is. All I know is I’m about to spend three months of my life in a different country, taking it one day at a time with only the first week’s worth of accommodations booked.

I am feeling: Excited. Fresh. Rejuvenated. Thankful. Anticipatory. There’s like a rainbow sherbet of feelings swirling inside this body of mine. A black bird just flew by – I think it’s a crow. Crows are said to symbolize magic, mystery, prophecy and good luck. I believe in symbols and signs from the universe. I’ll take it.

If I had to give this feeling a name, it would be freedom. Freedom from whatever it is that I need escaping from. Sometimes I wonder if I’m only running away from myself. Other times I wonder if I am actually running towards myself. I guess it’s all about perspective – and that’s something that traveling will grant you tons of.

Freedom and perspective. Two things to ruminate on as I sip champagne from an airline lounge inside JFK airport. How grateful I am to have this chance to be free. To fly into the arms of my lover – travel. And how lucky I am to do this all on my own.

Boarding will soon be called and my time traveling will begin.

See you on the flipside – Bangkok, here I come.

XO JULIA