for what it's worth, i enjoyed the ride WORDS MOLLY GOODRICH VISUALS ELAINE TANTRA MODEL KHANH NGUYEN
THE FIRST FEW WEEKS of January were blue. I was nineteen and all alone in a foreign country. I had only just recently started drinking alcohol and all of a sudden I could do it legally. This might be bad for me, I remember thinking the first time I purchased a bottle of fruit flavored vodka. The Italian cashier didn’t even ask for my ID. I pretended like I was an experienced drinker to my new friends even though I could count on one hand the amount of times I had ever been drunk. Though I’m sure they weren’t exactly naturals, either. My hair was pink, and the mountains were so familiar, like I was at home in Seattle instead of in a tiny Italian town 152 | EM SPRING 2021
in Switzerland. I would go on walks behind the school and just stare at the backdrop that looked like a movie set. I used to think I would never leave home, and then I went to school in Boston. Then I thought I would never leave Boston. But somehow I had gotten on the plane amidst the messy student visa process and ended up in Europe. Sometimes I thought I might wake up and this might all be some obscure dream. Like I made up this sleepy little town on the hill, this picture perfect school that made promises of a semester long traveling unlike anything else.