Something I wrote after reading this thing on this thing.

Check out this cool thing:

http://thereddressclub.blogspot.com/

They set writing challenges and other cool stuff. So i wrote this thing.

I've lost my vocab after a job interview today.

It's called This Time Two Years ago and the challenge was the write a 600 word piece that started with "I could never have imagined" and finished with "And then the whole world shifted."

Here goes.....

I could never have imagined that 25 hours in transit would feel so long. But checking my watch again, I see that I am still an hour from Europe. Sixty minutes from Di Vinci airport, Rome, to be exact. I sit back in my seat and focus on the tiny airplane as it makes its way across the screen. Converting miles travelled, into kilometers I had now put between myself and Melbourne, I close my eyes and wonder again why I am doing this.
I’ve left behind my job, my husband, everything familiar for a month long trip abroad. Alone. I need space, room to breath, time to think. I needed to let my hair down, shake off the stress. I need to get away.

I open my eyes and check my watch again. The women beside me stirs and shifts in her seat. I glance at the man across the aisle. Cute, mid thirties, generous hands. I look down at my own hands, to the place where my engagement ring usually sits. For safe keeping i had told my husband as i slipped it into my bed side drawer, i don’t want to accidently leave it in some hotel room. I ball my fingers into a fist and dig my nails into my palm. I let out a sigh.
I wish he had come with me; that our marriage was exciting and impulsive and not a carefully measured sum of me doing what i want and him doing what he wants and counting on the illusion that someday, somehow, those things might be the same.
I dig around in my bag until i find my creased itinerary. February 14th: Venice. Valentines day alone in Venice. How romantic.
I fold it carefully back into a side pocket and watch the night sky out of my window. Mostly all i can see is the woman staring back at me. I study her face. Dark brown hair-a legacy of 3 months in Asia and hair dye from the 7 /11. Blue eyes. Broad nose. Perfect bow for a mouth. No wrinkles. Yet. Not a grey hair in sight. I am 27 years old.
I recross my legs and take a swig from my water bottle. It tastes of copper and my ears pop as we begin our decent.

Despite the late hour, I can see plenty of lights around Rome. It looks so different! So European. So beautiful!
I practically sprint towards the luggage collection area and within minutes, I have grabbed my backpack and landed in customs. The officials speak to me in Italian and I giggle as they use the word Bella on me.
“Ciao” I practice as they hand me back my stamped passport.
I head for the exit sign.

I don’t know right now, that in a few days, I will come across the Colosseum by chance and drink coffee with new friends in the old city. Nor that within 6 days of my return to Melbourne, my life will implode. No idea that my marriage is about to fall apart. Or that two years later I will be booking a flight back to Paris, to celebrate my thirtieth birthday, and divorce, with my sister, brother in law, an ex boyfriend and my new boyfriend.

I do however, have an inkling that I am on the brink of a big adventure. So with hope in my heart and a smile on my face, I take one big step forward and then the whole world shifts.