The Adventures of a Free Spirit

I'll never forget that it was my first trip abroad. Try to imagine, you are a six year old kid, your house is the biggest place that you know and yet, you are about to jump inside a plane and visit the other corner of the earth.

I was overwhelmed, my body was shivering and my pupils big as a dish when I stepped in the land of freedom. The mighty United States of America where saying hello to me with a big smile and a blue, sunny horizon.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but the expectations were killing me. I couldn't restrain myself from running and jumping to experience what could be describe as a 5 minutes nirvana.

We hit the road and went to Disneyland. If going to this little heaven is a dream come true for a kid that is aware of it, for a kid that has no idea of what Disneyland is all about, oh boy, you can be sure that paradise is nothing compare it.

However, my paradise was a little bit different. Our guide was leading two groups, as you already guessed my family and, drum roll, the family of the cutest 8 year old girl I've seen in my life. I was speechless, not just because English is not my mother tongue and back then I couldn't structure a sentence, but rather because there was a connection between the two of us, that could be only compare with the time, that a free spirit leaves his cage for the first time and smell happiness in the air.

We looked at our eyeballs for ten solid seconds, ten solid seconds that disappeared like tic, toc, tic, toc, tic, toc. We were lost in a world of magic and fun. When I least knew, she was holding my hand and my body mysteriously acquired blonde hair and a blue nike cap. Our souls melted and our lips said to the world: "we don't need you anymore". How I was wishing I could say a word in English to capture what I was going through. How I was wishing to hear a word coming out of her mouth. How I was wishing that she never stops holding my hand.

Suddenly the shutter of a camera was pressed and the ephemeral moment captured. A picture is the only memory I have from the day that I first loved. Is a tiny memory, that could be anytime gone, but as long as I keep the negative intact, I can bring joy to my life, every time my favorite picture is reveal in the dark room of my mind.

I was at the airport, coming back home, carrying a suitcase bigger than me, packed of dreams of hitting again the road, to experience the love, that only traveling could bring to my soul.