Epilogue

Chosen

It's these little things, they can pull you under
Live your life filled with joy and wonder
I always knew this altogether thunder
Was lost in our little lives

— R.E.M., Sweetness Follows

As I dropped the car keys into the hands of the rental agent, I new that an era of my life had just come to a close. Almost to the day ten years ago it had started with a train journey to Oslo. What followed was a decade of more travel than I could ever have dreamed to be allowed.

More than everything, it had been a decade of exploring North America. I had driven more than thirty thousand miles across the continent. I had seen more of it than most people who were born here, had spent their entire lives here. I had driven over snowcapped mountains, through endless plains under towering clouds. I had driven, if ever so briefly, on a frozen river and, for much longer, over the ocean, protected only by crumbling concrete. I had stood on sand dunes of the driest desert and had watched the wipers capitulate under the onslaught of rain. I had walked for hours through the mercilessly beating heart of a megapolis and had rolled through forgotten villages a dozen horizons off the beaten track. The continent had taken me to my highest and my lowest and not only in terms of altitude.

But the journey had reached its end. The last months had made that clear beyond any doubt. It was time for a page break and a new chapter, time for a future unknown.

I grabbed my bags and started walking.