Thread by @Greygal__Eve

Story time, folks! This is going to be a long thread, but I have 8 more hours till I land and not ready to sleep :)

I was 24, weeks away from my first quarter century. I had the dream job - section editor of a major national magazine, fabulous apartment with view of Washington

Monument, (was living in Wash DC) I had all the toys and shinies, making near $80k - in 1989! I done it, I had the success and nearly everything society and family and culture said was the secret to happiness. I spent most weekends on the coast or exploring nearby states.

I should have been beyond ecstatic to live every day, but I wasn't. I was unsatisfied, not quite unhappy yet, at the same time, pretty miserable even though I was denying to myself.

I came home one night from yet another lovely dinner party with people who had even more than

I had achieved, I grabbed a diet Coke and stared out my window at the ever-photogenic Washington DC nightscape, then looked at my beautiful furniture, paintings, books, toys
.... And suddenly threw that damn diet Coke at the wall shouting to the universe ... "Is this it?"

"Is this all there is?" And I kinda lost myself for a bit that night, wallowing in the utter absolute meaninglessness of everything I achieved. I had been living the live everyone else wanted for me, but not the life *I* wanted for me. And I wasn't entirely sure anymore what the

Life *I* wanted for me was anymore, but I knew this wasn't it. I'd always done things my own way even while pursuing and confirming to the norms and expectations of most any American ... And while I was having *fun*, I wasn't *happy*. I was freakin' miserable with a smile.

Eventually, I managed to sleep, and when I woke up in the morning, I started to clean up the books and pillows I threw around in manic frustration the night before, and sadly, one old favorite book some pages had torn loose. Richard Bach's "Illusions". I picked up the first page,

Bit mad at myself for letting go like that, glanced down and read:

In order to live truly free and happy, you must sacrifice boredom. However, it's not always an easy sacrifice.

And it hit me all at once: the life I'm living today is no longer the life I was living yesterday.

Nothing will ever be the same. I didn't know what I was going to do, I just knew it wasn't going to be THIS anymore.

I went to work, and without any plan or idea, said to my boss I was leaving. Where you going? I don't know, just go.

Well okay, how much time do you need?

The rest of my life, I said.

He laughed, and I was like no, I'm serious, I'm leaving. I think I'm just going to sell everything , and, and, um, but a one way ticket somewhere... Like Europe, I think...

And in that moment I knew that's exactly what I was going to do.

I'd always been one to look at a picture of a place and say "someday, I want to see that...go there... Be there..." But someday doesn't exist; someday is a fantasy. The only reality we have is today and tomorrow ain't guaranteed. Wait too long for someday, you'll run out of time

On my lunch hour I went to travel agent and asked about one way ticket to Europe, and she told me if I don't mind it taking a few weeks for the ticket to arrive, she could get me to London one way $104 thru wholesaler. I said let's do it.
Not even knowing when I was going, I

Gave 30 days notice on my apartment, went out to dinner with friends who thought I was absolutely losing it when I told them I gave notice to job, was selling everything I own and flying to Europe - like one said do you need a doctor! It was kinda scary talking about this new

Future, it was terrifying in fact, the thought I was going to just give up my success, security, just walk away to be some well, I didn't know what, I just knew in my soul that if I didn't stop living the life *others* wanted me to live... I wasn't living.

I got home that night, turned on the TV and there it was, on every channel... People, thousands of people climbing on a wall, hitting THE wall with sledgehammers, tearing at it with their bare hands cheering shouting crying laughing and there I was alone in my apartment crying

And cheering with them, these strangers across the world tearing down the wall that divided their hopes dreams families for decades... And I felt this immense shattering inside myself.. walls internal I'd banged against inside myself not even realizing they were there, pushing me

To break free, to live *for me*

It was November 9, 1989, and as the world would never be the same again, I was never the same again, either .... In those moments watching those amazing Germans tear down that wall, i felt this absolute *rightness* and certainty in my decision to chase my own dreams, to LIVE.

I stood up, looked at the TV, and said, "I'll be there. I'm going there. I'm seeing that."

And I started going thru my stuff, dividing into sell, store at Dad's, donate, trash.

And I did it. Took 8 or 9 weeks to get rid of everything, get passport a ticket, etc. I flew one way with my bicycle and a backpack to London, rode from London to Land's End to John O'groats to Edinburgh, then headed to Germany, where I based myself for over a year. I saw the

Wall, I went thru to East Berlin which despite the futility of trying to maintain a border, still made me pay for a day visa lol!

I was there when Roger Waters performed "The Wall" in front of the wall in front of Brandenburg Gate... The most amazing concert ever!

I stood near checkpoint Charlie with one foot in the east and one foot in the west along with countless others that moment when two countries became one.

And in a few hours, for the first time in nearly 30 years, I'm going back.