Excerpt Thirty

We are so often caught up in our destination that we forget to appreciate the journey, especially the goodness of the people we meet along the way. Appreciation is a wonderful feeling. Don’t overlook it …

Once at the roof top bar, several bottles of wine were ordered and the twenty of us gathered around concentrated conversation and laughter. We had all just moved to Paris, even the six French people in the class, so this was an instant bond and topic of conversation. Everyone had their vision of what they wanted to experience by living in Paris, and there became lists and lists of things to do. Picnicking at the Eiffel Tower, crepe food crawl, hitting up the top ten wine bars of Paris, dining at Michelin star restaurants, attending the chocolate festival next month or exploring the largest flee market in Montemarte. It all sounded outright fabulous and to think that we would all be in this together. It also turned out that Pearl, Sarah and Sebastian all lived within a ten minute walk from my flat, so we started discussing restaurants in our area to try and the idea of dinner parties rotating whose apartment. Why everyone was there was almost irrelevant at this point.

A career change? Sure. But more importantly, we all loved life, were passionate about wine and food, and adored Paris.

It was instantly apparent everyone had followed a dream as well. I walked home as the sun set that evening feeling like I was on cloud nine. You always dream of something, and they say the reality is not nearly as good as the dream. Well my current reality was exceeding the dream. Joy was pulsing through me, and I knew in that moment the next ten months would change my life.