My name is Maggie Flynn and I recently turned 23 years old. That’s such a short amount of time to have been alive, I know. Despite that, there’s been a fire under my ass to do something big for a long time. It could stem from my fear of living with regrets. It could be my way of avoiding confronting my uncertainty about my future. It could simply be that I yearn for change as a source of excitement. No matter its source, I don’t feel comfortable ignoring it.
When I was six years old, my family and I moved from Olney, Maryland to Bruchmuelbach, Germany. My dad was in the Army at the time and had been stationed over seas, so we got on a plane and moved to Europe. A move like that might seem like a dream come true, but to a young kid who was being taken from her friends and put in an environment where everyone around you spoke a foreign language, it wasn’t the best situation. It was terrifying.
Over time, I adapted to life in Europe. I loved my school, I loved the constant travel, the culture, it became normal life.
Having the opportunity to call Paris a weekend trip on multiple occasions, being able to look at the Mona Lisa with my own eyes, enjoying Italian gelato before returning to our Tuscan villa – that was my life for five years. Although incredible experiences such as these haven’t gone unappreciated, it feels as though they happened in another lifetime. What I lived during my childhood was so extraordinary that it almost feels like a pleasant dream.
I left Europe when I was 11 years old. Having had my life immersed with European culture at such a young age, I am lucky enough that many of my experiences are still fresh in my mind.
When we moved to the states, my life felt empty. Although we’d definitely been spoiled with our past situation, becoming used to a completely new environment and experiencing a drastic cultural shock was a challenge. Not to mention, we were now in Columbus, Ohio. We gave up castles and timeless works of art for Columbus, Ohio.
In traditional foreign kid fashion, I quickly became infatuated with New York City and Los Angeles. Nothing comes close to Europe, but cities like these emulated an energy and culture unlike anything I’d seen before. It didn’t take long for the existence of exciting places like that to catch my attention.
For a long time, I really missed Europe. I’d made great friends in the states, but I was constantly bored; missing the luxury of travel. I often found myself blaming my homesickness on the state of Ohio and constantly pining for NYC and LA.
It wasn’t until I was a little older and had been in Ohio for a few years that I started to come to terms with where I was. I had great friends, great family, I was having the fun any kid gets to have. Later, when I could drive, that was when I started to see what else my area had to offer.
I would drive all over Columbus and realize how many neat hidden gems there were around every corner. Not only that, but as an older person I had a lot more available as far as entertainment and socializing. It was my last few years of high school in Columbus that I started to realize the uniqueness and excitement in the seemingly mundane.
Every city has a best place to grab breakfast or that art gallery hidden in the back of a bookstore. “Everywhere” is “somewhere” to someone and those someone’s are living lives as fulfilling as someone in the Big Apple or LA.
I’ve since been to New York City and it was one of the most incredible places I’ve ever been to. The energy was unlike anything I’d felt before. Walking around that city and breathing that air felt absolutely magical.
Despite that, it’s lost what it had when I was young new to the United States. It used to be this exciting, new worldly, beacon of light that made my moving here okay. It was this incredible place that people go to so they can have fun and explore and feel alive. Basically, in my mind, it was the Eiffel Tower, surrounded my a country wide sea of farmland.
I now realize that you can find and make your own fun anywhere you go. If you go out and look, it’s amazing how much there is to experience. Even just an hour or two away, there’s something new to be seen.
Obviously, I quickly realized that, no, the United States is definitely not a sea of farmland. There is so much out there to see and I want to see it.
As I mentioned, once I could drive, I would often venture further and further outside of Columbus. I was dying to see what was around me. As a teen, obviously unable to go too far outside of the city, I spent Friday nights and weekend exploring my home. The amount of things you miss when you’re passing through is astounding. When your goal is to explore and see a place, you discover a lot.
I went to college near Cleveland, at Kent State University. Although originally hesitant and nervous to stray so far from Columbus, I quickly warmed up to my new home. While I was in Kent, I became familiar with every inch of the area. It remains my absolute favorite place to be ☺️
I lived in Kent for five years, attended school for four, and in that time I was able to travel a lot.
As I became older and more comfortable with my own independence and ability to travel safely, I started to go whenever I could. Of course, I was in Cleveland often. Aside from Ohio though (I’ve been all over the whole. entire. state… not an exaggeration!!), I went up to Toronto, Montreal, Maine, West Virginia, Chicago, Pennsylvania, wherever I could go!
After I’d started getting comfortable with the states and really realizing what exactly was around me, I got the bug. I got the travel bug, and I got it bad.
A lot of people think in the back of their minds, “I’m going to road trip the country before I die!” How many people actually get to do it though? Although I try to find what I can around me, I’m just as guilty as anyone else! I desperately want to drop everything and travel the states in a van, stopping wherever I want to. It’s not that easy though. Life isn’t eventually. Life is now. I believe in the truth of the statement, but it’s still a hard one to follow. Life IS now and we all want to live and experience NOW. Until my now is the right time, I’ve accepted that I have to take what I can get. I do believe that I’ll get where I want to be. For now though, I’m taking the necessary steps to get there and appreciating the present moments I have.
I’ve always imagined my big trip with a group of my closest friends, and maybe even people I meet along the way. Although that could still happen, who knows, I now plan on taking it with my boyfriend of three years, Rob. Always eager to explore, he too looks forward to the prospect of country wide travel. Rob’s my adventure buddy. Travel related or not at all, I look forward to future adventures together!
Why “White Rose Buckets”?
Why is my name “White Rose Buckets”? 🌹 “White Rose” is what Rob calls me 😊 This is a result of my pale ass skin, rosy cheeks, and love of flowies. Buckets is just for bucket list! Not only that, but who doesn’t melt over a gorgeous bucket of white roses?
White Rose Buckets 