Matador Network's Blog, page 2237

30 signs you're too old for hostels

Photo: Avarty Photos

1. You’re this fucking close to knocking on the next room’s door and telling them to keep the noise down.

2. You’d rather read your book in peace than go meet new people.

3. You wake up before noon.

4. You realize you forgot your shower sandals and consider checking out.

5. You start using the word “splurge” unironically when looking at the private rooms.

6. You like the idea of bringing just a single bag, but, seriously, you’re not wearing four pairs of underwear for the duration of the trip.

7. You have no interest in discussing the difference between a “traveler” and a “tourist.”

8. You’re beginning to develop vaguely racist opinions about Australians.

9. Your impulse at the take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf is to just burn all the goddamn copies of Shantaram.

10. Someone mentions having sex in the hammock, and instead of thinking, “How does that even work?” you think, “God, why would you even want to?”

11. “Puff puff pass” seems to be losing one or two of the puffs lately.

12. The free drink the hostel bar offers suddenly doesn’t seem all that enticing.

13. After you return, you tell people the hostel was in a “rough neighborhood.”

14. The long-term travelers you used to call vagabonds are now starting to feel a little bit more like bums.

15. Your standards for a “premium suite” don’t include a bunk bed.

16. You’re not totally sure you can make it up to the top bunk.

17. The prospect of hooking up with any of the backpackers starts to feel creepy.

18. The words “party boat” make you feel dead inside.

19. You think, “This icebreaker activity feels wildly inappropriate.”

20. “Hanging out a few days more” is absolute nonsense. You’ve got a plane to catch.

21. Just once, you check your work email.

22. You roll your eyes at anyone who says they’re “just living.”

23. You stop feeling apologetic for being an American and start feeling defensive.

24. You’re the bunkmate who’s snoring at night.

25. You can’t ask someone about their travels without sounding at least slightly condescending.

26. You check your mattress for bedbugs before sleeping in it for three nights.

27. You take the time to review the hostel online.

28. You’re not jealous of a single person in the hostel.

29. You suddenly realize, “I don’t miss college at all.”

30. Just fuck it. You’ll spend the extra cash on a hotel and work overtime for a couple weeks when you get back.

9 travel tips I got from restaurant work

Photo: Alba Soler

1. A smile can fix a lot of things.

There are times when going to a table is physically terrifying. The times when you have to inform eight people who already ordered lobster rolls that the kitchen’s run out of lobster. Or you have to wait agonizingly at the server station in plain view, while a 72-year-old tyrant of a woman pouts for 20 minutes because you forgot to order her pork chop.

There are moments when walking out on your job, just slipping out the delivery door in full uniform and immediately shooting a gram of heroin into your central artery with a used needle you found by the dumpster seems like a smarter alternative to showing your face at a table.

The only solution is to smile. Be bright. Nobody can write a (completely) bad Yelp review about you if you smiled while relaying the bad news.

2. If you can survive a Sunday brunch on Memorial Day weekend, you can survive anything.

When your pack gets heavy on that 14-mile hike to the next village in Uganda, just think back to how many high chairs you carried up to the third floor patio and how many bus buckets filled with cast-iron skillets you brought back down.

3. There’s power in numbers.

Working back-to-back 16-hour doubles every weekend isn’t so bad when you can escape to the back stairwell and swap New Jersey bachelor party impressions with the upstairs bartender.

4. Always keep your cool.

Four tables just sat themselves out on the patio, a mile away, you’ve got a completely full dining room with 10 new people at the bar, and the ladies’ room toilet is clogged to the brim with tampons.

So what? They’re all just hungry people. All they want to do is eat a burger and a pound of fries, drink a beer, and clog your toilet again.

5. Sometimes you need to stand up for yourself.

When some silk-, pinstriped-, popped-collar-clothed Spaniard with stale cigarette breath and crunchy hair doesn’t get the point at the bar, you need to say, “Fuck off.”

When some polo-, pinstriped-, popped-collar-clothed bro with stale cigarette breath and no hair calls you a raging bitch because you won’t serve him his sixth Long Island iced tea, you need to say, “Fuck off.”

6. Quick math is key.

When you’re trying to bargain your way to five leather bracelets for the price of four at that Spanish open-air market in Fuengirola, you’re going to be thankful for those speedy number-crunching skills.

7. Multitasking is an art.

If you can memorize a six-top’s order while simultaneously bussing a deuce and planning what you’re going to eat for staff meal, you can multitask. Negotiating cab fare in a foreign language while translating a map and decoding a bus schedule will be a breeze.

8. Some people will fool you.

That elderly couple at table 44 wanted to know all about your last trip and what your hometown is like. By dessert you were on a first-name and inside-joke basis. And they only left $13 on a $100 bill?

They totally hustled you. Just like that smiley, charismatic Dominican man selling sunglasses is going to totally hustle you.

9. Learn to let things go.

Maybe you had to escape to the beer cooler and cry a little bit because you dropped the last order of calamari and that pregnant lady’s insult really got to you. Maybe your flight out of Maine in the middle of January got postponed indefinitely due to a severe ice storm. Take a deep breath. Let it go.

Ultimate world etiquette cheat sheet

I ALWAYS RESEARCH what is considered polite, as well as what is considered rude behavior, before traveling outside of the United States. I think it’s because I have this irrational fear of embarrassing myself over something I could have easily prevented, but all the same, my pre-planning hasn’t failed me yet.

This infographic provides some good, basic information on how to conduct yourself abroad, especially concerning business matters. Although I’m a bit skeptical about some — like not wearing shirts with pockets in Great Britain. Is that really a rude gesture, or just a fashion faux pas? (Click to enlarge)

How NOT to buy weed in Colorado

Photo: Mark

1. Get your bearings.

Cruise around the block six times, whispering Is this the place? Is this it?!? over and over and over to your boyfriend. Park right up front, feed the meter, then change your mind and decide you’re a little too close. Get back in your rental car, circle the block one more time, and park three blocks away.

Casually stroll up the street, as though you’re going somewhere else. “There’s a Whole Foods just around the corner, right? I think we need some more jicama.” Then, once you’re right in front of your target building, turn on a dime and dive into the first open doorway you see.

2. Look like you know what you’re doing.

My mom calls this “walking with purpose.” Aggressively march up to a display of glass pipes. Pick up an elaborate-looking one and loudly comment on its heft and shine. Spin on your heel and sidle your way through a group of angsty youths clustered around a case containing what seems to be metal pens. Offer some words of wisdom, like, “Fountain pens! What a great idea. Sort of an all-in-one shop.”

This will prompt one of the troubled teens to give you a condescending look before mumble-sighing at you about the health benefits of vaporizers. Now you’ve made a friend and learned some valuable insider tips.

After careening around the store for 20 minutes, you will eventually realize that you haven’t actually happened upon any weed. Slink up to the front counter and smile at the girl who looks like a Hot Topic wet-heaved all over her. Lean over conspiratorially and ask her where the good stuff is. The you-know.

“It’s next door, in the dispensary. This is the head shop. And you don’t have to whisper.”

Smile knowingly and wink before slithering out the front door.

3. Make a seamless entry.

Now you’ll become cognizant of some exciting differences between this entrance and the one you just came out of, such as the metal, windowless door and large red-and-black sign that reads “HOLD ID UP TO DOOR AND RING BELL.”

“Oh shit, that sounds like a secret password type of situation, doesn’t it?”

“No,” your boyfriend will say as he opens his wallet.

“Oh man, it’s like a speakeasy or something. What do we do?”

“You could start by getting out your license.”

Try to refrain from your instinctive urge to throw yourself flat against the wall as the door opens and five raucous hooligans pour out onto the sidewalk.

“IDs?” the muscular, bouncer-type dude at the door will say.

Giggle awkwardly while pawing at your boyfriend to go first. This will give you time to sift through your travel-safe money belt for your license.

4. Survey the premises.

The décor in here is much more reserved than next door — like a Southwest-themed Pier 1. Your new-age aunt who moved to Sedona to pursue her dream of becoming a certified crystal healer would love this place. Sepia-toned walls are strewn with vaguely-native-American-themed wrought-iron figures and faux-leather dreamcatchers. Clay pots of unknown purpose list to one side in the corner. A legalization map is prominently featured.

A weed dispensary is a lot like a winery or brewery, except in Colorado dispensaries, half the room is devoted to recreational users and half to medical users. The only difference is price; those with a medical card pay about 1/3 of the recreational cost. Consider what life would be like if your crippling anxiety could get you a medical beer card and reduce your alcohol bills by 2/3. Maybe with all that extra money, you could have finished grad school and MADE SOMETHING OF YOURSELF.

5. Sample the wares.

Pause that downward emotional spiral for a moment and head on over to the recreational-use counter. One or two helpful-looking fellows will be standing behind glass cases full of different types of pot. These will have names like “Peaches ‘N’ Cream” or “Green Crack.” Hide your confusion by asking an insider-sounding technical question, like, “Do you prefer the peach- or crack-flavored marijuana?”

The first guy will sneak a side-eye to the other one…probably to say, this girl knows what’s up. “Well, it depends what you’re looking to do. What are you gonna use this for?”

“To…smoke it,” you’ll reply knowingly.

“I mean, what kind of activity are you planning to do? Hiking? Partying? You wanna feel energized or relaxed?”

“Mostly high, is what I was thinking.” That was almost definitely a trick question.

The second guy, a skinny bald dude with lots of tattoos, will chime in now. “You know man, like, I’ve got my snowboarding weed, I’ve got my post-snowboarding weed, I’ve got my painting weed…then there’s my party weed, my thinking weed, you know?”

Number one will elaborate. “Each strain has different amounts of Sativas and Indicas. Sativa-dominant strains give you more of a head high; they’re good for creativity, but you can get a little amped up and paranoid too. Indicas are more relaxing.”

“Indicas is like ‘in the couch,’ that’s how I remember it,” number two will say, fingering his leather bracelet.

Consider the options before you. Swirl the weed around in each container, then ask to sniff the different strains. Wave your hand over the little glass jars, wafting the scent towards your nostrils like a pro. Inhale deeply and casually mention something about tannins. After a moment of contemplation, make your choice.

“We’ll take both types. One portion of both types.”

“How much do you want?”

“How much would you recommend for a week-long trip?”

“Maybe half a gram?”

Pause for a moment. “Great. We’ll take a gram of each.”

6. Enjoy.

11 stunning images of Arctic wildlife

Editor’s note: This photo essay comes to us from Espen Lie Dahl, showcasing his dual passions for nature and nature photography. When not out in the Norwegian wilderness shooting images, he spends his time doing nature research at a research institution. He also runs a small company together with his brother, renting out photo hides and guiding nature photographers on the coast of mid-Norway.

You can follow Espen’s work on Flickr, and connect with him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

All the images seen below were shot in Norway and on the remote Svalbard Islands in the Arctic Ocean.

1

White-tailed eagle
On the island of Smøla, mid-Norway, the densest population of white-tailed eagles in the world is found. Tours guided by eagle experts will take you out to get close encounters with these huge birds. With a wingspan of an impressive 2.5 meters, they look like small aircraft.





2

European shag
Some creatures are able to handle all sorts of conditions. The European shag is among the toughest of all birds found in the Northern Hemisphere, wintering along the rough Norwegian coastline. During spring they develop a stylish haircut to impress the other sex. Even a strong blizzard does not stop them from raising the feathers on their head to show the other sex how attractive they are.





3

Atlantic puffin
The parrot-like Atlantic Puffin spends the winter out in the open waters of the cold northern seas. In early spring they return to their breeding colonies to start the breeding season. They nest in steep cliffs, digging burrows in which they lay their single eggs. Puffins can become very old indeed; they are known to live for more than 40 years.












4

Polar bear on sea ice
Between Scandinavia and the North Pole—at 80°N—lies the archipelago of Svalbard. Circumnavigating the islands by boat used to be impossible because of sea ice, but not anymore. Due to climate change and ocean warming, the sea ice coverage is shrinking and it is now possible to sail around the archipelago during late summer. The polar bear spends most of its life on sea ice, hunting for seals. Without sea ice there will be no more polar bears.





5

Orca
Every winter, huge shoals of herring arrive on the coast of Norway in order to spawn. Along with the herring, pods of orcas and other whales can be seen. They come here to feed on the fish. This particular male orca was seen feeding on herring near the island of Smøla, off the coast of mid-Norway.





6

Lynx
Among the most mystical creatures in Scandinavian nature is the lynx. Humans rarely see this nocturnal feline. I was lucky to come across a roe deer killed by a lynx. While I was waiting around the kill, the big cat suddenly came out from the forest to feed, and I was able to get some images of this beautiful “Tiger of the North.”





7

Musk ox
The musk ox can still be found in the Dovre Mountains of mid-Norway, which is probably the most accessible place in the world to spot this creature of the past. Here, the musk ox coexists with animals such as arctic foxes, wolverines, and wild reindeer, making the area a hotspot for observing Arctic wildlife.





8

European eagle owl
The European eagle owl is among the biggest owls in the world. It is mostly nocturnal. However, at the high latitudes of Northern Norway—above the polar circle—the sun is above the horizon 24-7 during summer. This image is shot at 1am, with the midnight sun lighting up the owl as it lands.





9

Bearded seal
The most conspicuous feature of the bearded seal is its elegant whiskers. They use them as feelers as they search the ocean bottom for clams and squid. The bearded seal is a true Arctic seal, found only at high latitudes, and it serves as the main diet for the polar bear.





10

Northern Lights
Few things are more fascinating to watch than the aurora borealis. You stand the highest chance to see this in Northern Norway, though it's possible to see the Northern Lights in the south of the country too. All you need is clear skies, warm clothing, and a bit of luck.





11

Arctic fox
Having become almost extinct in Scandinavia, the Arctic fox is now making a comeback. An enormous conservation effort has been undertaken to protect the species and its habitat. The fox in this image was shot during fall, when they are changing their fur from the dark summer fur to completely white winter fur.

Iceland was made for road tripping

Iceland 2014 from Kieran Duncan on Vimeo.

IF YOU TRAVEL to Iceland and you don’t take a road trip, you’re haven’t really seen Iceland. I say this because Iceland is one of the only places I’ve ever traveled where I favored car travel over public transportation, mainly because it allowed me the freedom to stop, get out, and explore every inch of roadway I came across.

Iceland is one of the best places to immerse yourself in nature, a majority of it viewable along the Ring Road. This video encapsulates an epic road trip geared towards explorers and adventurers, but really anyone can hike on a glacier, go surfing on Iceland’s black sand beaches, or chill out in lava fields.

Are tiny houses the future?

The tiny house movement often seems more like it’s made for Pinterest boards than for actual practical use, but this recent video by The Atlantic, “The American Dream is Alive — and it’s Really, Really Tiny,” changes all that.

It focuses on the 128-square-foot house of Tammy Strobel and Logan Smith in Portland, Oregon, and how they’ve used it to improve their lives. They talk about how they used to be $30,000 in debt, and eventually decided that, in order to save time, space, and money, in order to simplify their lives, and in order to live more sustainably, they built a tiny house.

And it is small. The weird thing is, though, that while we watch them discussing the house, we can see that they appear to have a lot of room to spread out and move about. It just doesn’t look cramped. It’s a minimalist take on life, and one that cuts back on excessive materialism. I have to say that after watching this video, if I had any building skill at all, I’d consider this take on modern American living.

Could you see yourself living in a tiny house?

Drone captures fireworks from above

A FEW SUMMERS AGO, I was watching fireworks at the park near my house, and one of them malfunctioned and failed to shoot up in the air. It exploded on the ground, and for the first time, I got a context for just how huge the blast radius of a firework is. Obviously, that was a bit of a drag, because it nearly burned a half dozen people, so I started to think, “What would this look like in the air?” Fortunately, we live in the age of the drone and the GoPro.

Jos Stiglingh attached a GoPro camera onto a DJI Phantom drone and flew it through a spectacular fireworks show in West Palm Beach Florida. It looks kind of like an aerial scene from a World War II movie, but much more sparkly, and with way less violence. So kudos to Stiglingh for risking his drone – which totally could have been shot out of the sky by one of these fireworks – for the internet’s viewing pleasure.

20 overlooked US landmarks [pics]

AMERICA IS LARGE, with tons of landmark sites beyond Niagara, Mt. Rushmore, and the Statue of Liberty.

Scroll down to see inspiring photos of 20 places you might not have heard of, and the household names they’ve potentially been displaced by.

1

Bear Butte, SD
Overshadowed by: Nearby Mt. Rushmore
Cool features: The 4,400ft igneous uplift, just north of the Black Hills, is held as sacred by the Lakota, Cheyenne, and other American Indian peoples of the region, who often make pilgrimages to the butte and leave offerings on its slopes. Respectful visitors can check it out in Bear Butte State Park.
Photo: Lars Plougmann





2

St. Augustine, FL
Overshadowed by: Jamestown, VA
Cool features: Founded by the Spanish in 1565, St. Augustine is "the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States" (Wikipedia). The picture above is taken in front of the Fountain of Youth, a tribute to what Spanish explorers were looking for when they came to Florida.
Photo: minds-eye





3

Petrified Forest National Park, AZ
Overshadowed by: Nearby Grand Canyon National Park
Cool features: Adjacent to northeastern Arizona's Painted Desert, Petrified Forest is pretty colorful itself. It's also home to fossilized trees that grew 225 million years ago.
Photo: Skinned Mink












4

Angel Island, CA
Overshadowed by: Alcatraz Island, Ellis Island
Cool features: San Francisco Bay's Angel Island was the point of entry for many Asian immigrants to America. Its museum and research center make it a great place to celebrate Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Photo: Franco Folini





5

Ghost Ranch, NM
Overshadowed by: The Santa Fe art scene
Cool features: The Ghost Ranch complex is a 21,000-acre retreat near Abiquiu and is where American artist Georgia O'Keeffe found much of the inspiration behind her landscape and nature paintings. Dinosaur fossils are also frequently uncovered on the property.
Photo: Randy Pertiet





6

Shoshone Falls, ID
Overshadowed by: Niagara
Cool features: This falls in southern Idaho is 45 feet taller than its world-famous counterpart in the East and fills a spillage width of 1,000 feet during runoff season. Swimming, boating, hiking, and picnicking opportunities are available.
Photo: The Shutterbugette





7

Airplane Boneyard, AZ
Overshadowed by: Real airports
Cool features: The aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, near Tuscon, is one of many such storage and scrap facilities in the American Southwest, where a dry climate and hard, compacted soil make it feasible to leave huge planes to sit for decades.
Photo: PhillipC





8

Indian Mounds, nationwide
Overshadowed by: An apparent educational basis in the study of Native American history
Cool features: Burial mounds scattered across the country, with high concentrations along the Mississippi, belie the idea that North American Indians never created monumental structures. The mound pictured above is just outside Columbus, OH.
Photo: spisharam





9

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO
Overshadowed by: Colorado's mountains
Cool features: This new national park, created in 2004, is surprisingly overlooked, given it has the tallest dunes in North America and a backdrop made up of 14'ers in the Sangre de Cristo Range. It's also a great place to get started sandboarding.
Photo: knasen












10

Seattle Underground
Overshadowed by: Ground-level Seattle
Cool features: In 1889, a fire burned Seattle to the ground. To rebuild, citizens raised the city, constructing the new directly on top of the old. Matador Goods coeditor Michelle Schusterman blogs about this landmark in Before the Streets Were Raised.
Photo: zaui





11

Chetro Ketl, NM
Overshadowed by: Pueblo Bonita and the greater Chaco Canyon
Cool features: The name of the historical culture and the canyon that housed it has penetrated into public awareness much more so than one of its most intricate and well preserved pueblos, Chetro Ketl. The canyon is a national historic park, with camping open year round.
Photo: snowpeak





12

Penobscot Narrows Bridge, ME
Overshadowed by: Golden Gate, Brooklyn, and other famous U.S. bridges
Cool features: The engineering sophistication that went into the four-year-old bridge seems incongruous with its location in small-town Maine. But the coolest part is the observation post built into the western tower. It's the tallest such observatory in the world.
Photo: sskennel





13

White Sands National Monument, NM
Overshadowed by: New Mexico's archaeological sites
Cool features: New Mexico's White Sands is 275 square miles of gypsum dunes, 15 miles southwest of Alamogordo.
Photo: a4gpa





14

Palo Duro Canyon, TX
Overshadowed by: Grand Canyon
Cool features: Though nowhere near the scope of America's "grand" master, Palo Duro is the second largest canyon system in the country. It's currently protected by a Texas state park of the same name.
Photo: r w h





15

Natchez Trace Parkway
Overshadowed by: Blue Ridge Parkway
Cool features: Not nearly as mountainous as its Blue Ridge counterpart, the Natchez Trace Parkway makes for a smooth 444-mile cruise from southwestern Mississippi up to the outskirts of Nashville. It follows the path of the old Natchez Trace, which once served as a hunting and trade route for native peoples and later Europeans/Americans.
Photo: brandongreer












16

Fort Ticonderoga, NY
Overshadowed by: Gettysburg
Cool features: This strategic fort was captured by the Green Mountain Boys at the start of the American Revolution. Also overlooked is the fact that infamous traitor Benedict Arnold was instrumental in the Revolutionary forces' 1775 victory here.
Photo: Slabcity Gang





17

Shiprock, NM
Overshadowed by: Monument Valley
Cool features: Like Bear Butte, Shiprock is considered sacred by the indigenous peoples of the region. To me, it looks like that sweet mobile fortress in Krull.
Photo: bowiesnodgrass





18

African Burial Ground, NYC
Overshadowed by: New York's many other historical and cultural offerings
Cool features: In 1991, the remains of 400 Africans (both free and enslaved) were uncovered in Lower Manhattan. You can read more about the site at Collazo Projects, the blog of Matador's managing editor, Julie Schwietert.
Photo: A. Strakey





19

Great Basin National Park, NV
Overshadowed by: Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone, and other Western parks
Cool features: Established in 1986, Great Basin is an infant in Western national park terms. Highlights include the Lehman Caves, plenty of backcountry camping opportunities, and the oldest known trees in the world. Find it off Highway 50, just across the Utah border.
Photo: Alaskan Dude





20

McDonald Observatory, TX
Overshadowed by: Mauna Kea Observatory, HI
Cool features: The height and aridity of the Davis Mountains, located in West Texas, make for good stargazing at McDonald, one of the most powerful observatories in the country.
Photo: Chuck 55

The first time I felt independence

Photo: anurag agnihotri

I come from a long bloodline of worriers. My failure to call home once a week as a college student was often met with a downpour of panic that I’d “gotten into a car accident and died.”

My desires to work in writing were met with concerns that I wouldn’t have health insurance.

When I got a new boyfriend, it was very worrisome that he didn’t have a 401K.

Before I went whitewater rafting for the first time, I had to listen to my father tell me about his “friend” who had also gone whitewater rafting. This friend had “broken his leg and died.”

I wish I could say that this worry gene didn’t pass on to me, but I too have felt myself hugging a loved one too tightly when saying goodbye. I’ve saved countless voicemails as if they were soon-to-be artifacts. I’ve even gone so far as imagining the minute details of myself, distraught, at a funeral. What would I wear? Who would bring me? How soon would I return to work?

It’s a strange characteristic. And I’m not even a parent yet.

Throughout my upbringing, I felt glimmers of realizations. They hit me while I was riding my bike, alone, down a main road. While I was driving my ’99 Mercury Sable at 16. While I was walking down a side street, in Portland, Maine, on a late spring sunny morning.

These little epiphanies: “Wow, I exist, and I can do things.”

“Wow, I can go anywhere.”

“Wow, I have a bank account with money in it.”

These sudden realizations, always reminding me, “Wow, I’m alive,” would burst in epiphany before fizzling out with a stifling “but.”

“But my parents are expecting me home.”

“But I’m $35,000 in debt.”

“But I’m scared.”

The “but” was the reason I went straight to my local university, just 30 minutes away from where I graduated high school. And when my first year ended, I went straight back home for the summer. Even though I knew people who were spending summers away, exploring new cities, taking road trips, studying abroad, I never considered it. Because how would I get an apartment? What would I do for work? What if I missed my friends?

As my college years continued, I did eventually travel. I went to Spain to visit my grandparents in Mijas. I backpacked the northern coast of the Dominican Republic with a boyfriend. But every trip I took, every new move I made, I needed to be with someone. My travels had to be at the hand of someone else’s plans, desires, worries. The person often changed, but there had to be a person.

Maybe I finally uprooted myself years too late. Maybe I look back on my recently graduated self just like my mother did, with envy. Maybe.

When I graduated from college, the independence was overwhelming. The weight of it came down on me while I was packing up my apartment in Orono. It was so heavy that I mistook my new freedom for limitation. I hadn’t planned for it. I hadn’t gone through the necessary steps to get a job in my field. I hadn’t thought of any trip I wanted to take. And even if I had, I didn’t have anyone to go with me. I was worried.

I stopped packing and immediately drove to my parents’ house.

“I envy you,” my mom said. “You got yourself an education, and now you’re done. You can do whatever you want. We’re not worried anymore.”

She was right. I could do anything. So I moved to Bar Harbor with a girlfriend, and I more or less stayed put for two years. Still traveling on time off, still always someone else’s idea, still always returning to restaurant work in the spring.

When I ask the people around me about the first time they felt independence, most people say, “When I got my license.”

“When I graduated.”

“When I paid off my debts.”

My boyfriend says that independence struck him for good when he was 10 years old. He took his XR80 eight miles down the baseline by himself.

I just turned 25, and the first time I felt independence was four months ago in the Denver airport. I was sitting on the floor up against a wall, writing in my journal and watching the passersby move about the crisp, glassy lines of the sunny terminal. Those guys with huge, exaggerated cowboy hats were walking around smiling, giving people directions to Starbucks and the post office.

I’d just taken my first ever flight alone. I’d sat next to an elderly woman in the window seat who never once looked up from her Elizabeth Gilbert book to say hello. I’d visited Colorado out of curiosity, and instead of flying home after a long weekend I was on my way to Texas to begin a road trip. I’d quit my job. I didn’t know when I was coming back.

Maybe I finally uprooted myself years too late. Maybe I look back on my recently graduated self just like my mother did, with envy. Maybe. But either way, I did look up from the page I was writing on, and one of those sudden, faintly familiar realizations gave me another chance.

“Wow, I’m alive.”

But this time, the feeling stuck.