When her life came to a screeching halt, her sister got her moving again.
By: Casey Coulter
About a year ago, Georgie Hunt thought she had her life planned out, at least for the short-term. She was planning to move in with her boyfriend of six years, MJ. She had spent her weekend apartment hunting with him. They finally settled on one they kept coming back to. Finally, they decided to call their realtor and tell her they were going to take a place. Georgie told MJ she would take care of all the paper work while he was away on a work trip.
The next morning, Hunt said goodbye to MJ. They kept in touch over the phone while he was away. So she was surprised when two days later she was visited by the local authorities, who explained that her boyfriend had been in a car accident. “I froze when they told me. It was impossible, I had just spoken to him before lunch…. He always wore his seat belt.”
MJ didn’t know what to do next. She took time off of school and work. She spent days lying silently in her room. “All I remember from that time is laying in my bed day after day,” she said. Then one day, her sister Sofie came to her with an idea. She knew her sister had always wanted to live abroad. They could get visas to work in London, travel until they ran out of money and go back to work and do it again.
“Sofie came running into my room and screaming ‘pack your bags’ while waving our plane tickets in the air,” Hunt said. Sofie had just bought two one-way tickets. They spent the next two weeks shoving what they could fit of their lives into four backpacks. Their mother had bought both her daughters a set of two backpacks each. Then, she and her husband drove her kids to the airport.
“I had no clue when I would see them again. I didn’t know when I would see my home again, or where I would be in a year, but I was so excited.”
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One of the first places she visited was Greece. Every view was like a picture and it was well with-in their price range. They checked into their private, 30 euro, hostel the first night and woke up stunned in the morning. There was an infinity pool that overlooked the ocean, and the views just got more breathtaking. “I didn’t think the views could get better, but they did,” she said. She explored Mykonos with her sister and two other girls they had met.
Her next stop was Germany for Octoberfest. When they first arrived they were in typical street attire, but soon realized they needed to buy German outfits. The costumes range anywhere from 30 to 200 euros. Georgie ensured her sister that they would return, so they decided to buy more elaborate costumes. “I never felt so oddly dressed,” she remembered. “The atmosphere is something I had never experienced before. It’s thousands of people celebrating… drinking” she said, laughing.
This was the start of the first holiday season without her family, but she was not even missing home. While, she does think about MJ every day, she has healed some through her adventures. “I just want to keep seeing new places, instead of staying in bed” she explained.
“You meet so many new people every time you go somewhere, and they become your family for that week” she explained.
Another stop was Croatia. She decided to go with a group of people from the hostile to a nearby waterfall on her first day. “We all took turns jumping in with my GoPro,” she reminisced. This was near the end of her first round of traveling. She knew that she would be returning to London to work after this trip and wanted to make sure it was one to remember. Her favorite memory was one that reminded her of MJ. “We always went hiking in the fall… we had to take this path to get to the top of the waterfall and I just couldn’t stop thinking about the last time we had gone hiking,” she explained.
Smiling, she explained, “It’s nice to not have reminders every second”. While she does think of him every day, it’s not her main focus. “Traveling has let me remember how to enjoy little things,” Hunt said. She enjoys being reminded of her life with MJ, but is glad that she is becoming herself again.
After Croatia, she returned to London to work again.
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The plan was for the sisters to make enough money in London to continue to travel. But spending their first Christmas away from home, first at a small café and then in bed staying indoors during the rain, Sofie started to get homesick. She decided she had to go home. Georgie was initially upset that her sister was leaving so soon, but ultimately she decided it was for the best, for both of them. Georgie had relied on having her sister there for the first round of their travel. Now she would have to do it on her own.
She has now been traveling on her own for a year. She has gone to Madrid, Oslo and Stockholm. She has seen the Trevi fountain, the leaning tower of Pisa and all that London has to offer. Sometimes she thinks about her family back home and thinks about going back too. But then she thinks of all that she’s gotten to see in her time abroad. At times, she can’t help but think back on MJ.
Sometimes, Hunt worries that by continuing to travel she’s running away from her problems. She’s given thought to the idea that maybe what she’s doing is unhealthy. Yet, she can’t help but think how happy MJ would be for her. Maybe when the whirlwind of travel is over, she’ll finally go back home and sit with her thoughts again.
But for now, she’s got to keep going.