Forgive the title. I know it sounds unoriginal. The truth is, I tried to think of something that sincerely summarized the current phase of my life. You see, a horizon* is the imaginary line between what is and what could be. On this side of a horizon, everything is near, visible, and familiar - and no matter how infinitesimally close you get to it, that fact will never change. Once you cross it, however, there is no going back; you find yourself in a world of the strange and the new, for better or worse, 'til death do you part. This summer encompasses a period of my existence in which I feel eveything is changing.
I have moved four times in the past three years; once to the other side of the country, and thrice to the other side of the world. All during high school, no less. I won't bore your with the details, so let's just leave it at the whole I've-grown-as-a-person-and-am-wiser-about-the-world-than-I-once-was schtick. This self-obsessed chronicle is about the summer of the year two thousand and eleven. The summer between junior and senior year. The summer I became an Au Pair.
Money's been scarce in my family. We've been keeping our heads above water - which is more than other millions of unfortunate souls can claim during this recession - but putting my two elder brothers through university, along with a colorful myriad of other wacky antics and monotony, has tightened my parents' belts considerably. Travel is my life. I wanted to help my family. I have three whole months during which to pander my time according to my will. With all the audacity of a fourteen-year-old boy in the American Midwest in the eighteen hundreds walking into a whorehouse for the first time, I joined several Au Pair websites... and my long vigil began. I was eventually contacted by a Turkish family with a single 10-year-old boy.
AND THE ADVENTURE COMMENCED!
Must sleep, I'll edit this post after going comatose for a few hours and hallucinating vividly then having amneisa about the whole experience.
*(P.S. To all my astronomer readers out there. My definition of 'horizon' is closer akin to that of the 'event horizon' of black holes than the blue line you see where the sky meets the sea. An astronomical event horizon is the imaginary spherical plane surrounding a black hole. It represents the points in space from which even light cannot escape. No matter how close you get to it, you can still turn back unscathed. Cross it even slightly... and no one will ever here your tale.)
I have moved four times in the past three years; once to the other side of the country, and thrice to the other side of the world. All during high school, no less. I won't bore your with the details, so let's just leave it at the whole I've-grown-as-a-person-and-am-wiser-about-the-world-than-I-once-was schtick. This self-obsessed chronicle is about the summer of the year two thousand and eleven. The summer between junior and senior year. The summer I became an Au Pair.
Money's been scarce in my family. We've been keeping our heads above water - which is more than other millions of unfortunate souls can claim during this recession - but putting my two elder brothers through university, along with a colorful myriad of other wacky antics and monotony, has tightened my parents' belts considerably. Travel is my life. I wanted to help my family. I have three whole months during which to pander my time according to my will. With all the audacity of a fourteen-year-old boy in the American Midwest in the eighteen hundreds walking into a whorehouse for the first time, I joined several Au Pair websites... and my long vigil began. I was eventually contacted by a Turkish family with a single 10-year-old boy.
AND THE ADVENTURE COMMENCED!
Must sleep, I'll edit this post after going comatose for a few hours and hallucinating vividly then having amneisa about the whole experience.
*(P.S. To all my astronomer readers out there. My definition of 'horizon' is closer akin to that of the 'event horizon' of black holes than the blue line you see where the sky meets the sea. An astronomical event horizon is the imaginary spherical plane surrounding a black hole. It represents the points in space from which even light cannot escape. No matter how close you get to it, you can still turn back unscathed. Cross it even slightly... and no one will ever here your tale.)
