It was in New York City, dead-of-winter 2005, when we—Amanda, Jen and Holly—found ourselves in the midst of a collective quarter life crisis. Sure, 20-something burnout may sound a tad to silly to anyone born before the advent of MTV, Atari or Guess jeans, but seven-day workweeks at stress-driven offices had taken their toll. Despite having creative gigs that fueled our passions, we were exhausted and frustrated that our careers had become our identities. Constantly linked to work via cell, text, blackberry and e-mail, we were starving for real connections with family, friends and significant others (who wants to date a woman already married to her job?).
It turns out, we weren't alone. Like millions of young American women in our generation, we were plagued with doubts and fears about the paths we were choosing. Though 12-hour workdays left us little time for contemplation, we couldn’t quiet that inner voice asking: What exactly were we doing with our lives? Could we ultimately commit to one career, city and lifestyle (and man), when so many opportunities lie before us? On our own, with no parents, advisers or a syllabus to guide us, you could say that we were a little, well, Lost. Okay, very Lost. So before making the ultimate choice of which way to go as (gulp) adults, we decided to take a major detour, one we hoped might provide a little insight into these questions and just maybe, a road- map to our futures.
Kissing our jobs, boyfriends, apartments, families and our beloved Manhattan goodbye, we officially became "The Lost Girls," and started making plans for a yearlong, 35,000-mile journey around the globe. Loosely building an itinerary that begins in South America and crawls eastward through Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Australia, we plan to explore the cultures, mindsets and lifestyles of our international counterparts, getting to know thousands of strangers so we may better know ourselves.
We have no idea what the next year will hold—or where the future will lead us—but we can't wait to start the journey. Our first stop? Peru: home of pisco sours, ancient Incas and Andes Mountains. The Lost Girls' kicked off our trip on June 20, 2006. For more about us, check out lostgirlsworld.com. We hope that you'll stick with us every step of the way. Stayed tuned for our first report from the road.
