Wonderland Challenge 2020

Find the Key to the Garden

         PROMPT: Create a blog or a static item about an opportunity of a lifetime, a key to achieving something important. Do not drop your gloves and fan!

         

         Waving her stiff new passport at the receding figure of her father, Kristen joined the other would be travellers shuffling along in the slow moving departure line. As she gazed around the noisy airport terminal she mentally ticked off items on her long list. Passport, check. Boarding pass, check. Luggage tagged, check. Cell phone... wait a minute, where did she put it? After a few anxious minutes of digging through her carry on and patting down her jacket, Kristen found her device exactly where she had left it, or more accurately pocketed it. Her shoulders relaxed and her breathing slowed. That phone would be her lifeline, her only connection with home. Did she remember to pack its charging cable? Feeling her anxiety manifest in a quickened heart beat, she reminded herself to breathe. She had packed and repacked her bags. She'd prepared.

         Her family had professed to being perplexed by Kristen's decision to teach abroad. They had argued international travel came fraught with insurmountable dangers. She'd be a stranger in a strange land. Who could she trust? What would she eat? Did she realize there would be a language barrier? Could she really stay away for an entire year?

         Kristen had considered many variables as best an unseasoned traveller could foresee. Yes, she knew she lacked life experience. She could best be described as quiet and shy. No, she did not speak Korean, fluently or otherwise. True, she could be a picky eater, but she'd converted to a vegetarian lifestyle.

         A sigh escaped her lips. Kristen tossed her hair over her straightened shoulders and tightened her grip on her purse. She smiled when she felt the passport clutched in her hand. Nods were exchanged with the crush of humanity in her sights. With every step she took, her adventure seemed closer. She could and would do this.

         Dropping into her airplane seat and tugging on the seatbelt, Kristen surprised herself. She felt no regret, no fear, no what-ifs. She felt free. There'd be no turning back now. By tomorrow, she'd be an English as a second language teacher in South Korea. Not too shabby for a small town girl with grand plans. She chuckled. The strains of 'Miss Independence' echoed in her memory. (375 words)