Having missed the Ireland/Scotland trip my two best girls (Heather and DeMerse) took in Dec-Jan of 2007/8 and having passed up countless other opportunities to plan trips based on finances, life, school and work, this book was an example to me of what *could* happen if I ever bit the winged bullet and headed overseas with my two favorite ladies.
From sunrises in Peru to surfing in Australia, to the beaches of Goa, an ashram in India and the killing fields in Vietnam, the year these three late twentysomethings took from their fast-pased and stressful NYC lives is proof that when you're on the road, home truly is where your heart (and your backpack) is.
Currently landlocked with writing a thesis and living off my student loans for the summer, I have no sights of major travel, international or otherwise, on my horizon. However, rather than depress me, this book, told equally by all three women, made me feel energized - how much they did, saw, felt, tasted - was up to them. I feel the same is true in all of our lives, regardless of if it's a matter of the destination from our daily commute or a day trip; what you get is what you give, try and do. Reading their tale reminded me to suck the juices from the days a little more slowly. Today, for instance, I tried 'chipping' at the driving range for the first time and as it turns out, I'm pretty good at it! Who would have thought that years ago in middle school, I felt the women on the golf team were miles beyond me...
Holly, Jen and Amanda (yes, after 500 pages and stories about parasites, I'm on first-name basis territory) all left something. For Holly, it was her long-term perfect boyfriend and their shared apartment in the city. For Jen, it was her 'shit or get off the pot' 3-year relationship which she was dreading a proposal from (but in which she stayed because she was terrified of being alone). For Amanda, it was her complete inability to do anything aside from work feverishly in her publishing job, forsaking her social life and health in the process.
When they decided to take the trip, they knew there would be risks and since they were all in their own ways so unsure of where they wanted to go in life, they knew those risks might result in some of the very things that happened to them along the way. They dubbed themselves "The Lost Girls" not because they expected to be 'found' on the road (well, not all of them anyway) but because they felt their plight of indecision about their home-lives (marriage? kids? better job? different city? happiness?) was akin to what just about every twentysomething goes through during their first job after college. They couldn't be more right about that!
Along the way through the travelogue, you get a chance to learn about each woman as she learns about herself which I liked; despite the writing occurring mostly after their travels, they've done an amazing job making it all feel in-the-moment. There's Jen - who will jump off of, eat or do anything once...as long as she's not alone. There's Holly, who's totally broke but still finds money (and space in her bag) for some of the most hilariously crazy trinkets, can't go a day without makeup and literally runs circles around everyone she meets while trying to find faith. And there's Amanda who experiences some serious work-withdrawls, disagreements and ultimately, in my mind, comes the farthest in being less "lost" by the end of the trip. I truly found a piece of myself in each of the three women and found my aforementioned girls in each of them as well.
My only point of hesitation in the reading of The Lost Girls was that at first I was put off with HOW they were able to do this, financially - I did NOT want to read about three rich girls trotting around the globe. As I read on (which I'm so glad I did) I found that my initial assumptions couldn't have been more wrong: like most of us would have to do to take a year off, they gave up comfort, security and sometimes even safety to have a realistic budget. They also went into debt and risked 'career suicide', proving just another way their trip was truly real...and while lost, they all gained a lot more than they spent.
Post-book, they have a pretty neat blog full of travel tips, etc: http://www.lostgirlsworld.com.
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