Prologue
In September 2003 my wife (then fiancée) Emma emerged after an eight-year
sentence. The crime? Choosing to be a Clinical Psychologist. The sentence?
Studying for this career. Although Emma voluntarily took this path to
becoming a doctor, it was not with a full understanding of the lengthy
consequences of her decision. I think that if there had been a comprehension
of how long she would have to spend working towards her goal she might
have just torn up the UCAS form and embraced a promising career at Pizza
Hut. However, the fresh faced 18 year old who enrolled at York University in
1995 did escape Royal Holloway University eight years later and still with a
fairly fresh face.
In order to mark this return to freedom we decided to go away on
holiday – for 13 weeks. Emma and I had discussed going travelling for a long
time, and increasingly as her studies were coming to an end. In fact travelling
was the light at the end of the tunnel that helped Emma keep going through
her doctorate. She had certainly earned a rest and for my part I was ready for
a break too. For one thing, it is surprisingly all consuming when a loved one
undertakes such intense and lengthy training. Plus I could not let her go and
have all the fun on her own.
For our destination we chose the USA. There were two reasons for this
decision. One, we like the country and had a long list of places that we
wanted to visit there. Two, we did not want to do proper (hard) travelling. In
other words travelling with backpacks and one pair of pants, in countries
where we did not understand the language or the culture. America struck us
kiana
(Kiana)
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