I’m thrilled to let you know that you’re the winner of Skyscanner’s New Discoveries contest. The prize is of two airline tickets to fly anywhere within the continental United States.
I have never won anything before this. OK, that’s not true; let me rephrase. I have never won anything cool before.
In sixth grade, I won a debate on ancient Egypt, and my teacher gifted me a coupon for 50 cents off a celebratory sundae at Friendly’s. So that was cool — for me, anyway. I don’t know how my parents felt about being forced into paying for the extra $3.50 so I could scarf down the creepy clown-faced custard. Then there was that time I won a scotch sampler when I was underage and thus unable to accept the prize. And the time I “won” a back massage from the creepy kid in theater class. But when it’s come to the wins I truly coveted, like, say, a free flight, I’ve always fallen short.
Case in point, the colossal cluster known as my 13th birthday. Sassy magazine had predicted that my last month as a Piscean preteen would be life-altering. According to the adolescent periodical, a field trip with a boy I was crushing on would end in a kiss and an unexpected gift, bringing music to my new relationship. Lucky numbers: 3, 19, 13, 4.
To say there was squealing after reading this horoscope would be an understatement. I immediately ran to a store and bought gum, ensuring I would be pucker-ready.
The stars were aligned! On my birthday, I headed on a class field trip with Charlie, the boy I had a huge crush on! Just as the horoscope had predicted! As if those coincidences weren’t proof positive enough, the lucky numbers sealed the deal. My birthday is 3/19, and I was turning 13. At the time, I didn’t know what the 4 indicated, but now I realize it stood for the number of hours I spent crying when Charlie told me he had a girlfriend.
Attempting to chew away my angst on the bus ride back to school, I ripped open the cotton-candy-flavored Bubble Yum pack and saw four consecutive pictures of a Discman inside the wrapper. Having completely forgotten about the gum’s giveaway, I managed to win the grand prize but lose it because of a ripped wrapper.
No kiss. No relationship. No music.
I stopped believing in horoscopes after that day. I stopped believing in contests, too. There wasn’t enough cotton candy bubble gum in the world to sustain the constant disappointment of raised hopes and shattered dreams.
But nearly two decades later, there was something about the Skyscanner New Destinations contest that called to me.
I needed it.
Over the past year, I’ve been feeling claustrophobic. On a global level. As if nothing other than a trip to Jupiter (cue Train song here) would provide the wide-open spaces I require to breathe deeply. You know, ignoring that whole lack of oxygen thing. Minor detail.
To win Skyscanner’s awesome giveaway, I had to state in 50 words where I wanted to travel. I wrote about the first place that popped in my mind: Wyoming.
As a child, my Barbies never shacked up in the Malibu dream house. Each lived on a ranch, in the open wild of Wyoming — spaced far enough apart that they could walk the perimeter of their land (my basement) and never see another living (plastic) soul. By age 6, I was already seeking the solitude of J.D. Salinger.
Add this to the other 3 billion reasons it’s a wonder my parents never had me tested.
Luckily, my love of outdoors, free from people and possessions, didn’t lead to some weird cavewoman existence in which wall paintings of my hand in the shape of bunny ears were my only friends. The constant weekend camping adventures my husband and I took kept me sane — a leisure I’ve almost entirely given up since having my son.
In its place grew a strong will to hijack the Orion Mars voyage and go joyriding. Adventure was calling!
Skyscanner answered.
Just knowing a strong dose of who I used to be is around the corner is enough to have me breathing correctly here on Earth. Which is a good thing, because I don’t think I would have made it to Jupiter. I hear the iPhone GPS tracker gets cruddy reception in space.