One Week

With only one week before our departure, it’s hard to believe this trip is going to happen. Almost nine months ago Clarissa and I were walking up a big hill in Sheffield MA, catching up on family and school, reflecting on how far we’ve come from our hilltown childhoods. Upon arriving at the top of the hill we turned around to see a view much bigger than ourselves and decided it was time to take a step into the unknown, to find new struggles elsewhere, and to do it together. Like most teenagers, we longed for a dramatic change of scenery but unlike our peers, we wanted exposure to truths about the world not provided by our institutional educations. I was in the middle of my second semester at Simon’s Rock, tired and frustrated with the isolation I felt on campus but elated by my strengthened sense of curiosity and appreciation for hard work. Clarissa, in her final year at Stratton Mountain School, needed a break between high school and college and having spent ten months in Norway, knew the emotional and intellectual benefits of travel. Though I don’t remember the exact conversation we had atop the mountain, I do remember calling my father later that week and announcing I was going to take a gap year with Clarissa, I never asked for permission but just stated the truth, “Dad, Clarissa and I are going on a trip together.”

We started searching for our travel destinations in a myriad of random places, South America, Scotland, New Zealand. Clarissa wanted to hike in the tropical rainforest and I wanted to herd sheep in the highlands. How we decided on Thailand, Vietnam, Greece, and Spain is still honestly a mystery to me but it feels right in my heart. We get see my family in Thailand, Clarissa’s family in Crete and France and many beautiful places in between. It felt like a good balance between having solid bases with family and friends and exploring new territory on our own. We assign little to no purpose on this trip, there is no goal, no expectations about who we will be or what we will find. We just hope to stay safe, meet some new people, and swim in new rivers and oceans. And maybe just maybe I’ll learn something about myself or my mother or the bonds that keep people together. Just like the view from the top of that mountain, there is no much mystery ahead, so much we see but cannot touch, a vast view we know nothing about. Nervous is an understatement. Clarissa and I have each had stress dreams about packing and planes and missing trains. But we only have one more week of thinking of our trip before we are on a mind-numbingly long plane ride across the world.

We’ve decided to have a blog mostly so that we don’t have to personally update all of the concerned and curious adults in our lives, so that in the future when people ask about our trip we can write down a link and move on. Also, so that we have our own time capsule of adventures to look back on. Clarissa and I will alternate writing weekly. Well, we will try our best to write weekly but no promises, six months is a long time.

Best,
Alice

This summer after a swim in the Westfield.