I left something behind in the heat and the vastness of this continent, and I was reborn as something I knew I had always been: a wanderess.

I knew then that this hug had been the greatest teacher of my young life.

We lay in each other's arms, rescuing each other from drowning. Each of us needed the other more than we were able to say. On this very odd night, the world could have gone down, and we would have been okay.

We can’t conquer the things that are bigger than ourselves; we can’t even escape them. It is the wind that decides our destination, far more than ourselves. All that we are able to do is pack our bags, hop on board, raise the anchor and set the sails. We can only trust the wind and go on and on.

There was a memory of how beautiful, how wild, how colourful, how adventurous and how wonderful this big world was.

I knew that I never wanted to stop walking; I wanted to see places and somehow understand what this thing called earth was all about. There were so many people out there, and I had to meet them. I felt safe and at home on the roads to nowhere, I felt welcome and protected in the unknown land and I fell in love with the people around me. They were so very similar and still so very different from me. I felt their souls connect to my own, and I knew no greater feeling could ever be given to me.

Nothing would ever be the same after I had been hurt so deeply, but to still have the courage to love—that was real bravery, the bravery people talked about in stories and tales.