07“Mommy wow, I’m a big kid now”
Six months have passed and Karlyn and Jessica have found themselves back in their native home land of red, white, and blue. Although it was a feat in and of itself to say goodbye to their livelihood of “joie de vivre” in Argentina, they have slowly made their way back to reality, or attempts at reality for that matter. Karlyn and Jessica have settled into city life on two very distinct, separate coasts and have become proud residents of NYC and LA.
Tucked into the quaint streets of the upper east side, Jessica is just beginning to build a home in the “city” that defiantly screams the motto, “If you can make it in here, you can make it anywhere”. As she saunters past a homeless man completely distracted from reality with the words of Bob Marley ringing true, she can’t help but stare up at the vast, sprawling city that she now calls home. Even though Jessica is not a novice to New York City, she feels like she is seeing the city in a completely new light as she transitions into the unique, frenzied life of a resident New Yorker and leaves behind her nomadic wanderings.
On the other end of the US, Karlyn now navigates her environmentally friendly Prius (along with the likes of the very beloved, Larry David) through the palm tree infested streets of LA, packed with people all trying to make a name for themselves. Only six blocks from the beach with its infamous pier, she now lives in the quintessential California neighborhood of Santa Monica populated by the likes of surfers, hippies, and occasionally your local celeb. The entertainment world is everywhere and how can one forget with the enormous Hollywood sign forged into the mountains reminding the world of the chance at stardom.
On either sides of the US, both Karlyn and Jessica are stumped by the complexities and responsibilities of maturity. They can no longer clutch onto their immaturity and aloofly point fingers in the other direction when obstacles come their way. Gone our the days of college when their greatest challenge was a financial accounting test that they had the entire week to prepare for, but in the meantime had to painstakingly devise the ultimate costume for the next disco date mixer. They are now small fish in a big pond struggling to find their way upstream.
While the chains of adulthood inevitably impose their way into their lives, Karlyn and Jessica thought they would document the lessons of life discovered along the way as they struggle to bid adieu to their childhood. The two figured it would be much easier to (light heartedly) laugh off these moments, than sit at home exhausted by reality. Hopefully, you can learn from their mistakes and triumphs, and they will be able to entertain you along the way with the interesting (unusual) pickles that are always thrown at them. So long princesses, prince charming, and most importantly fairy tale endings….hello unending hours, crazy bosses, and financial responsibilities. Wish the two of them luck because they’ll most certainly need it each step of the way as they courageously make the decision to finally become adults.
