A Maze of Moments: 5 Years of Unintentional Global Wander

Table of Contents
Travel Advisory
Chapter 1
Marketing Statement
Genre: YA Contemporary
Word Count: 53,000

This is the story of me, a teenager who has lived in five countries and visited over twenty. I don’t claim to be normal, who could after being under cover in Saudi Arabia, kissing a tattooed boy in the Marshall Islands, escaping from a revolution in Libya (not fun), and jumping naked from a schooner in Brazil?

The truth is I was always weird and it used to depress me until, when I turned thirteen, I was given a gift—the gift of travel. My family is also odd (an understatement) but one thing my Dad has turned out to be good at is getting jobs in far-off places.

World travelers like me are called ‘third-culture kids’ and with 300,000+, you’d think someone would have written about this American sub-culture before now, but it hasn’t happened. So I decided to do it, partly because I keep reading stories about teens who don’t want to move. But my friends and I like this life. I’m not saying it’s easy-peasy, some days are BAD, as you’ll see by my story, but there are also incredible moments that an ordinary life just doesn’t give you, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile.

Here’s a warning: traveling does not solve all your troubles because, as my Gram says, “You take yourself with you wherever you go.” However, what it can do is give you the freedom to discover the person you want to be and, trust me, that’s well worth your heading out the door…