Flying

Going to the airport after work for holiday is a weird thing to me. I have a real job with a monthly paycheck and I'm going on a journey and coming home to the same job. And I'm happy about this.
The last flight I took was the one that brought me to China four months ago. A flight I honestly didn't know whether or not I'd regret taking months down the road. 
The flight before that was leaving New York to come to China. Before that was flying to New York jobless with literally nothing more than dreams. Before that was returning from Europe jobless and infected with an uncontrollable desire to be anywhere but Louisiana. 
It seems every flight I've taken in the past year was running from boredom or running toward adventure and uncertainty. 
Finally I've found a place where I can be anyone I want to be and at the end of the day, I only choose to be the same me I've always been, but with no veils. I say and do as I please because I'm finally able to. I finally realized the old me isn't who I was running from. I've just been running toward the new me. For months I regretted many events in my recent past, but now I embrace them, I realize where I've landed and that it was worth every struggle I ever endured that I never imagined would end.
I'm writing this from 15,000 feet above China headed to Guangxi Province to a beautiful city called Guilin. 
I'm with my recently adopted Venezuelan roommate, Alicia. We are on a non-stop, nine-day adventure through the south of China in the Yunnan and Hunnan Provinces.
Full fledge adventuring: hiking multiple mountains, river cruising, sleeping in monasteries in the mountains and overnight coach buses. 
In my wildest dreams, (and trust me my imagination is quite expansive,) I never imagined I'd be backpacking in the south of China as vacation from my life in Beijing.
I don't know where the courage to run came from, but for the first time in years I'm genuinely pleased with life and what lies ahead in my future. When I first moved from my home state last year I had no clue of the future I wanted for myself, I only knew it wasn't in Louisiana. And it certainly wasn't a 9-5, a car note, birdseeds trailing white satin, 10% down or pink and blue surprises. Not for another decade at least, anyway. 
Even after the week I had with small problems that seemed so grand because of language barriers and customs, at the end of the day, Louisiana doesn't seem like the better choice for me. 
So, I'll enjoy the next nine days of holiday and then I'll return to the job I love, and to my home in Beijing with my family and I'll be happy all the same.