Her Wanderlust List

Chapter two: travel is rebellion in its purest form.

4 months earlier

Siren checked the clock; she had been sitting just the same for 3 hours. Her brown eyes puffy and red, her nose slightly pink, her fingers anxiously rubbing against each other, her heart in pain.

The thing about falling in love with a different city is that you are constantly missing a home that is never going to be your real home. Therefore, falling in love with a man in a different city just doubles the pain... and is considered multiples of stupid.

Was anything worth it?

She closed her eyes, "Be quiet." She begged, tears swelling up again. Her mind was taunting her.

He just left you without any build up, it is so pathetic. He did not even try to fix things, he did not even try to tell you something is wrong. Everyone else knew, except you. You were naïve and pathetic. He did not want you.

She jumped off the bed and walked out of her room, trying to distract herself. It didn't work.

Leaving you was so easy, he just did it on skype! He did not even think of saying it to your face when he could have. You will be so easy to forget; you are not even in the same country as he is.

Her lips quivered and she knelt in the middle of her empty family home.

Sobs echoed around the walls.

"How could you leave me," she whispered as her fingers wrapped around her hot head. Hot from all the thinking and self-destruction. Tear droplets fell on the wooden floor, turning into a golden dome as the sun reached it through the big windows in the house.

You were too much.

She shook her head and stood up, walking back to her room. Grabbing her laptop and turning it on, she tried to regulate her breathing.

"It's okay to be feeling like shit, I just got broken up with by my one-and-a-half-year boyfriend." She comforted herself, trying in anyway, to dull the ache left by her toxic thoughts.

Snort

She turned on her social media account, absentmindedly scrolling through, just to divert her attention. Her timeline was exceptionally negative – as always. It seems like everyone she ever met is now facing this deep depressive night of the soul. Her whole country hated itself and it was shitting on her psych since she gulped down their vibes every time she turned that thing on.

Her eyes caught on a lovely picture of a tip of a mountain, she focused the screen on it. It was a shared article.

Life's too short to not follow things that set your soul on fire.

Author: Aaron Guarascio

For some reason, she hesitated. But she clicked on the link.

**

I have seen hundreds of cities, gained tens of friends from around the world and yet, Italy is supposed to be my home.

However, no one ever speaks of the cost of being in love with a different city. I am here to write it for anyone who struggles. For those whose pain gets undermined because "how can you feel depressed when you've just returned from Cuba."

The thing about falling in love with another city is that you have to say many goodbyes, and still go on.

You must become resilient and never allow your bending to break you. You must get comfortable with starting over and feeling like you pressed play and pause and play and pause every time you leave and come back.