- Go weeks without sleep listening to the same song on repeat. Watch the moon from your window, frown at the lack of stars. Tell yourself you’ll never get tired of looking at the sky. Get tired of looking at the sky. Climb out of your window like an escaping thief to watch the sunrise. End up scaring a large dog across the street.
- Invest in too many maps and too many pins. Pin the places you want to go in white and the places you have been in red. Congratulations, your white to color ratio is now equal to the U.S. Congress. Get angry. Take down the map.
- Create a five-page list of the places you want to go. Loose the list. You temporarily give up hope. I mean, you don’t even have a job.
- Try for months to capture this feeling, this constant reminder that you are here and not everywhere else. Fail.
- Create a tumblr tag titled “places”. Fill it with pictures of great cities and not-so-great landscapes. Spend three hours scrolling through the “Prague” tag.
- Receive money from your grandparents for your birthday. Tell your grandmother you’re going to run away to Prague. She won’t believe you. You don’t believe you. What are you even going to do in Prague?
- Watch others explain that they often write about the experiences they’re not having and the frustration it ensues. Repress the urge to stand up and scream YESYESYES at the top of your lungs.
- Download a bus route app on your phone. Find out that you can get to Seattle in twenty-three hours and eleven minutes. Get off at the bus stop and stare at the train for five minutes. Go home.
- Tell your friend about the Seattle incident. They don’t believe you. You don’t believe you. What are you even going to do in Seattle?
- Accept that you’re going to be stuck for a couple years. You’re going to be stuck your entire life. But maybe, one day, you’ll be stuck somewhere else.
Charlotte Pocock, class of 2019
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Creative Writing 