#Fearless Friday's Only Child and #Adventurous by Dee S. Knight #romance

FEARLESS FRIDAY
Please join me in welcoming Dee S. Knight with some fearless fun. Remember that first fearless adventure you had? Dee shares hers with us. So read on and enjoy. You'll find out her heroine is fearless too.
When I was just shy of my 18th birthday, I hugged my mom and dad goodbye in Orlando, Florida and stepped onto the train that would take me to Fredericksburg, Virginia for my first day of college. I’d never been away from home before—except for hospitals where I’d had surgery due to polio. I’d never traveled alone before, never been on a train or in a taxi. I’d never visited or even seen the school I was going to attend or ever been in Fredericksburg. I didn’t know anyone else going to my school. I'd never been separated from the familiar.
Still, I was fearless.
I was bound for adventure and new sights, new friends, new freedoms. With the typical selfishness of youth, I didn’t give very much thought to the fact that my parents had just sent their only child thousands of miles away and how they might feel. I knew I would miss them and that they would miss me, but I was consumed with excitement and looking forward to discovering the unknown.
As an only child I wasn’t especially attuned to adventure. I’d led a very sheltered life. My dad was in the Navy. We had moved to Orlando the summer between my junior and senior year, so I didn’t feel a strong kinship with the city, my high school, or any friends I’d made in that one year. The separation from lifelong friends and a city I loved had taken place the previous summer, when we left Virginia Beach.
The train trip was interesting. I was able to sit back and watch the scenery change from Florida, to Georgia. Through the Carolinas, and then into Virginia. As soon as we crossed the Virginia line my heart lightened. Not only was I going to the school of my choice—Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia (now Mary Washington University—no longer an all-girls’ college and now separate from UVA)—but I was once again in the same state with my sweetheart, Jack. Going back to Virginia for school had nothing to do with the fact that Jack was also going to school there (in Lexington, hours from Fredericksburg, but in the same state, at least). Nothing.But it didn’t hurt.