"I know it seems nuts, but sometimes moving to a new city on a whim is exactly what a girl in her early twenties needs to grow up. (I'm speaking from personal experience, which I can tell you all about a different time. Plus, I can tell you definitively that leaving the country is the very best way to get over a breakup.) Suddenly, Belly has found herself alone in Paris without a dead Susannah to tell her what to do"
"I had been wondering if Belly bothered to contact her study abroad program before booking a last-minute flight to Paris because, well, this is a girl who didn't Google the cost of a wedding cake before wandering into the bakery. And Belly is not exactly firing on all cylinders right now. To wit, for a semester-long stay in a foreign country, she has packed a single carry-on suitcase and one backpack, into which she has also stuff"
Belly boards a last-minute flight to Paris and follows through on a spontaneous plan to study abroad, asserting independence from previous attachments. Her new European friends display moral ambiguity and view her choices with a mix of curiosity and hypocrisy. Moving to a new city on a whim is presented as a catalyst for adulthood and recovery from heartbreak. Alone in Paris without familiar protectors or financial cushions, Belly confronts practical challenges and begins small identity shifts, already adopting the name Isabel. She departs underprepared, carrying only a single carry-on and a backpack for a semester abroad.
Read at Vulture
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