SYSI (Becca Butcher)

The start of the road trip, my back yard.

Right now all of my belongings are packed in boxes, crammed into every available space in my Corolla, and currently hurdling across I-40 in New Mexico on a cross country trip from Lake Wales, Florida to Spokane, Washington. I don’t have a job lined up (I do have potential ones though, so not too worried), I am scared, and I am so excited. Let me give you some background before I get too ahead of myself. I have lived in Lake Wales, Florida for roughly 15 years. It’s a small town in central Florida with not much going on besides orange groves, southern hospitality, and a couple colleges, one of which I attended. For someone like me, who has always had the travel bug, living in Lake Wales recently has been incredibly difficult. I began feeling stifled and limited in my growth as an adult. How could I possibly learn here? Everything is the same every single day. Seeing the same faces with the same points of view. I felt stuck in the same place mentally, I wasn’t being challenged, I wasn’t in a place where I felt I could grow into the woman I’m supposed to be. I grew so bitter and angry at the fact that I was stuck in this town that I was honestly miserable for quite some time.

We drove from North FL to New Orleans, making a quick stop in Alabama.

One thing you need to know about me is that throughout the years I have become an expert at compartmentalizing my issues. I have learned how to isolate what’s going on, put it in a box, put it on a shelf somewhere in the back of my mind, and ignore it. Get through the day, worry about the problems or emotions later, if at all. Obviously, this is not healthy, and does not work. I would not recommend it to anyone.

Coffee at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans, easily my favorite place that we stopped.

Accumulating on my emotional shelf throughout the years are boxes labeled “Abusive ex-boyfriend”, “Suicidal thoughts”, “Depression”, “Trust issues”, “That-one-box-that-we-won’t-even-acknowledge-because-there-is-way-too-much-crap”, and then of course “Living in Lake Wales”. For some reason, that one I had easy access too. More than likely it was because it was something that had absolutely no control over, so it was easy to throw my hands up and say “Well, if I just wasn’t in Lake Wales, this would be a whole lot better, obviously” while ignoring my growing shelves of actual issues.

Artists setting up on Jackson Square in New Orleans.

Then something truly horrible happened in my life, which to respect those involved I won’t talk about in too much detail, but the only way I can describe it is evil. Purely awful, and gut wrenchingly horrible. It shook me to my core. But, up on the shelf it went; I didn’t have time for that. However, this one wouldn’t be ignored no matter how much I tried. I started to change as a person. I grew more pessimistic, angry, even more detached emotionally than before, and I could feel my foundation crumbling beneath me. I bet you can’t guess what I blamed that on. Lake Wales, of course.

Drove through Texas (which was the worst, sorry Texas folks) and through New Mexico and Arizona. I was blown away by the beauty of the drive in NM.

It wasn’t until all of my tangible belongings were packed in real boxes and I made the plans to abandon the comfort of this little town and move to the exact opposite corner of the country that I realized that it wasn’t Lake Wales that was the problem, it was definitely me. It was a whole lot easier blaming my life’s problems on Lake Wales than on myself.

I was sitting at the Tampa airport waiting to pick up my Dad and road trip partner where I started to realize that Lake Wales is a beautiful place. It’s a place where I discovered my passion for working with children and adults with special needs. It’s where I discovered I had artistic abilities and learned how amazing it was to make something with my two hands and from there I figured out that I eventually want to open a non-profit organization for adults with special needs with a heavy focus in art therapy.

Stopped in Northern Arizona to stay with a friend and little did we know it was right off of Route 66.

Lake Wales and the amazing people that surrounded me have molded me into a caring, and loving human being with a heart to help others. My problem wasn’t Lake Wales, it was my boxes upon boxes of issues that I continued to ignore that were falling through the cracks. My issues won’t be ignored anymore, and I don’t want to ignore them either.

Drove from Northern Arizona to Las Vega, Nevada, and stopped to take a picture of this view, The Black Canyon I believe it was called. Could be wrong. It’s kind of a blur.

Lake Wales was perfect for the season that I was in, and without the amazing support system that I had there I don’t think I would have been able to make it.

So, here I am. Traveling across the country for a fresh start with new possibilities and adventures ahead.

My shelf is a work in progress; I am a work in progress. Thankfully, we all are, and I know no matter what I will never be alone.

Becca Butcher

Drove to Central California to stay with my cousin. Drove through the Mojave Desert and saw a lot of Joshua Trees, which are now one of my favorite trees.

The blurry view from the hotel room in Las Vegas. Our hotel was also the hotel featured in Back to the Future that Biff ran in the future, thought that was kinda cool.