Cherish

Chapter One - Where it all began

June, laying on my bed watching the trees dance in the warm breeze I felt as if nothing mattered, every day was gone in the bink of an eye without a single thing accomplished. Well, that is apart from the tan on my legs from sitting in the garden watching my new neighbours renovate their house together, so in love, so full of anticipation for the future. I want to be happy for them but since it's just you and me I can admit how bitterly jealous I am every time I see them or hear them laugh. People walking past give me a pitiful smile, twenty-two, unemployed, still living with my parents, and barely passing my master's degree. Devon is one of the most beautiful yet suffocating places in the world, I need more. I came to the realisation that while I have been living adventures through books and daydreams, I had forgotten to experience almost anything. My degree is online, I have no friends, no relationship so what is stopping me from just leaving?

Scrolling through the internet looking for somewhere to stay for a few months that I would feel safe enough alone, adverts for an apartment to rent pop up on my screen. Central Rome, Italy. It's affordable, close to the city but tucked away to avoid the chaos of nighttime in the city. Without taking a second to consider it was booked. This is actually happening. This year has been hard. Possibly the hardest of my life, the pandemic introduced me to a new level of loneliness. Friends who didn't understand my fears carried on without me, living their life fully and carefree. I envy them. Nobody checks in on me, nobody thinks to invite me anywhere. In what feels like a blink of an eye I had only one friend, Marie. I spent the best part of an hour begging her to come with me with no luck. "We've spend our entire lives being careful and following the rules, let's do something wild" "Grace you are twenty-two years old with little money and no common sense how do you actually think this is going to end?".

So there I was packing everything I can cram into my ten year old suitcase, looking around my childhood bedroom with a sense of both excitement and fear. I barely slept the night before my flight, waking up every fifteen minutes praying that my alarm clock will sound any second. My mum drove me to the airport under the impression I would be travelling with a friend, with tears in her eyes she kisses my forehead and tells me to call her when I land. Suitcase in hand I start the beginning of the rest of my life.