A journey of a thousand miles

My mother won't stop crying and she's driving me mad. My father won't look me in the eye. My sister is tapping furiously on her phone, probably filling in her sycophantic band of friends. Grandma has one arm wrapped around me, the other is holding my hand. Thank the lord someone is on my side.

I can't say I blame my family for their reaction - what I did shocked and embarrassed them and that is hard to forgive in this household. My dad is better known in the community as Judge Rennie while my mum is famous for her tiny bakery on a quiet road in the city centre, so famous in fact that she has a queue lining up outside before 8:30am every morning for her freshly baked pastries. My sister Jenna is heading to university this year and I recently graduated with a first class degree in English. Despite my academic success however, nothing made my parents happier than the day that my boyfriend James showed up in a suit and, in a salute to the 1900s, asked my father for my hand in marriage.

I had my reasons for calling it off and if I hadn't I wouldn't have been about to do the most exciting thing I can possibly imagine. Remember: A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.