Wanderlust

0- Charlotte (Charlie) Brikers

Chicago, Illinois

Orlando, Florida

Washington D.C.

Omaha, Nebraska

Austin, Texas

Salt Lake City, Utah

Las Vegas, Nevada

New York, New York

New Orleans, Louisiana

Juneau, Alaska

Los Angeles, California

The possibilities are endless, and that’s just America. There’s also Paris, London, England, Ireland, Tokyo, Australia, Russia, Canada, India… there’s a whole world out there to explore. 510,100,000 square kilometers. That’s 196,900,000 square miles of places to go and people to meet and things to do. How can one person possibly do it all in one life time? They can’t, it’s impossible. But I think that I can try.

Sorry, I’m getting way ahead of myself. My name is Charlotte Brikers, but I prefer Charlie. Daughter of Susanne Brikers, sister of Valerie Brikers. And the next generation of Susanne Gregory Fashion Design. My mother made the brand before marrying my father (we don’t talk about him) and it really took off. So when my mother is gone, it is expected to go to me or my older sister, Valerie, but because she’s older, she got to refuse the offer of inheriting the business and she’s going off to college to be a nurse. But me, being my mother’s last option, have no choice in the matter.

And the foundation of the company is stationed right here in Pittsburgh. Not Japan or Australia or Britain or anywhere cool like that, no. Just Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I’m only a junior in high school, though, so I won’t be expected to take over anything anytime soon, but how can my mother expect me to just live my life in one city? Doesn’t she know what’s out there?

How can I see the Mona Lisa from my bedroom? Or tour the Buckingham Palace from some stuffy office at the top of some building? Or explore the Great Barrier Reef at a fashion show?

How can I be happy if I’m not doing what I love? Exploring.

How can I find myself if I’m constantly being told what to do, how to act, and who to be? I can’t. I have no idea who I am or what I want, because who I am and what I want just don’t matter in the town that I live in. I want to lean on the edge of the Grand Canyon and look over the world from the Eiffel Tower. But nobody cares about that.

Nobody cares about me, just the future of the damn company. It’s excruciating.

Really, the only thing that I find happiness in, is my job at the café downtown. It’s called The Fly Away Diner and the theme of the whole diner is decorated in pictures from all over the world. There’s a huge wall dedicated to post cards that people bring in to pin to the wall. Maybe someday I can put my postcards on that wall.

Okay, well there you have it. Charlie Brikers. Trapped, confused, suffocated, and dreaming. Well, that was before he came barging into my life, but you’ll get to that later. I mean, I had my whole life planned out, and then he just came in and he… I don’t know what he did. He ruined everything… yet he fixed everything too. How is that even possible?

Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself once again…

I am Charlie Brikers, and this is my story. My story of finding out who I am and having my dreams come true. This is the story of how I broke every rule I’d ever learned just for one person.  Just for one adventure. I laughed, cried, smiled, and I felt more emotions that I’d felt in my entire life. This is the story of how I fell in love. 

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Thank you so much for reading, this is kinda the prologue thingy, so the next chapter will start off the story. (:

The picture to the side is AnnaSophia Robb, who is going to play Charlie <3

Have a wonderful day!