Modern Day Drifter

 

Makeup, hair dryer, dresses - I didn't need them. The true definition of necessity, I carried on my back. This was the first step in my liberation.
Defiance, the need to prove my strength and ability - I ignored their protests. This was something I had to do, and I had to do it alone.
Not a rebellious teenager anymore - I struggled to grow up, now just searching for my place.
The airplane windows stirred the butterflies. I stepped out on my own, thrown into a world where I was forced to find my way all by myself - what I'd always dreamed of. No boy to carry my bag. No one to point me in the right direction. No taxi to shuttle me - I'll do it myself.
Many adventures I embarked upon, many struggles I faced. As soon as I memorized the map, got comfortable in one place, I moved on to start over again. The unknown - that is what I've always sought.
Rarely a shower, never a phone call, language barriers surrounding, no table or chair, no transportation but my own two feet. No jewelry, no curling iron, no high heels - strip me of all materialistic ties to my comfortable life back home.
I've become the person that has hiked a snow-covered mountain, swam under a waterfall in my underwear, landed on a mountaintop village at midnight via cable car, had lunch with a Canadian dreamer and her Golden Retriever in a Swiss cobblestone town. I've sought refuge from a snowstorm with a stray cat; I've spent the night in a phone booth; I've lived in a real life fairy tale, and had to climb a mountain to do so. When there was nowhere to sleep, I laid down under the Eiffel Tower. When I craved pasta, I walked the few miles to Italy to have an amazing lunch. I've hiked down a terrace-farmed Tuscan hill to take a dip in the Mediterranean; I've tanned on a French beach; I've spoken the language.
I lived a new life every day. And what a life it was.