The optimism of youth
Know what I love about Europe? The way it always makes me feel.
My first trip to Europe was when I was 18. I saved up the money I made through junior and senior year working part-time at TJ Maxx--about $1,000.
Hey, it was another time. I could travel reasonably well (well, as a student) for a week for that amount.
I planned a trip to Paris and London with my two best friends, K and R. We had all studied French together, and we were excited to be let loose on all the sites we'd studied so diligently. Yeah, we were some kinda geeks.
(Both lesbian, now, BTW, to think of it.)
Anyway, if you haven't ever run around Europe when you were 18, carefree and completely clueless, I highly recommend it. It was wonderful. We felt the city was all hours, there completely for our disposal. We ran around, wild and free, enamored of everyone we met and everything we saw. Nothing could disappoint us.
Two years later, I lived in Paris for a year, and the city took on a new significance for me. If you've ever lived in a foreign country, you know that even the smallest things can be victories: negotiating the bus system to get to the movies, finding all the groceries, making sense of the currency. I remember finding a cobbler to fix my shoes (hey, I was a poor student and couldn't afford a new pair) and feeling like I'd conquered a mountain.
Every time I go back, that positive energy returns. Not always in force, to be honest, but always at least a little bit. The freedom. The sense of infinite possibilities. The hope for adventure.
Yup. The optimism of youth. That's all it takes.
My first trip to Europe was when I was 18. I saved up the money I made through junior and senior year working part-time at TJ Maxx--about $1,000.
Hey, it was another time. I could travel reasonably well (well, as a student) for a week for that amount.
I planned a trip to Paris and London with my two best friends, K and R. We had all studied French together, and we were excited to be let loose on all the sites we'd studied so diligently. Yeah, we were some kinda geeks.
(Both lesbian, now, BTW, to think of it.)
Anyway, if you haven't ever run around Europe when you were 18, carefree and completely clueless, I highly recommend it. It was wonderful. We felt the city was all hours, there completely for our disposal. We ran around, wild and free, enamored of everyone we met and everything we saw. Nothing could disappoint us.
Two years later, I lived in Paris for a year, and the city took on a new significance for me. If you've ever lived in a foreign country, you know that even the smallest things can be victories: negotiating the bus system to get to the movies, finding all the groceries, making sense of the currency. I remember finding a cobbler to fix my shoes (hey, I was a poor student and couldn't afford a new pair) and feeling like I'd conquered a mountain.
Every time I go back, that positive energy returns. Not always in force, to be honest, but always at least a little bit. The freedom. The sense of infinite possibilities. The hope for adventure.
Yup. The optimism of youth. That's all it takes.