Sunday Scribblings: Fellow Travelers

I like the literalness of today's prompt. Fellow travelers has come to mean almost anything but fellow travelers these days, that most people's first thought is about those who are on the same life path as them. For example, my fellow-writers, especially those whom I've met through the MFA, were the first to come into my mind when I saw the prompt.

Twenty-five years ago I went to Switzerland with a bunch of kids from local high schools to do five weeks of French Immersion in a small Alpine village built high on the side of a mountain. They tossed us in five to a room, and on the bunk opposite mine was a girl named Karen. She and I turned out to be kindred spirits. We liked getting into exactly the same kind of trouble, the same kids got on our nerves, we supported each other in our crushes on different boys without ever having a crush on the same boy, we had up-market tastes in champagne and chocolate (particularly for sixteen year-olds), and, finally, we swore we would return the next summer. Which we did. Together.

Over the next eighteen months, Karen and I had an idiosyncratic tour of Europe. We went to Athens without seeing the Parthenon, went to Amsterdam without seeing the Van Gogh Museum, and zipped through Italy without stopping in Rome, Florence, or Venice. We made our way to Crete, where that first time, staying there for three months, I didn't visit Knossos (I would see it later). It was the itinerary of two seventeen year-olds with no interest in anything but bars, boys, and beaches. Priding ourselves on travelling light, we hardly even shopped.

After three months in Crete, living on opposite sides of the Island (I in Agia Galini, Karen in Iraklion), I chose to return to Canada to attend University. Karen stayed. She's been living in Crete since 1983. I've been back to see her a couple of times (that's when I saw Knossos, and of course, I've since been to the Acropolis site and seen the Parthenon more than once).

Karen just visited Canada in December. She's thinking of moving back but is worried about culture shock. I can't imagine what I'd be like today if I'd followed her lead and stayed in Crete. But when we see one another, we're as close as we ever were. We were fellow-travelers, embarked on the adventure of our lives. It took us in two different directions, but there is something about being on the road together when you're young that creates an unbreakable bond no matter what other paths you might ultimately take.

For more fellow-travelers' stories, go here.

Photo credit to Wikipedia.