I’m walking Sabina to school, since she’s only seven, when a thought occurs to me. It happens as we’re turning the last corner right before the school house comes into view. We bump into Alex, the baker’s son. I cringe when he talks.

“Hi Catalina, Sabina, beautiful day!”

“Hi.”

“So, Catalina, I was just on my way to the lake and was wondering if you’d like to join me?”

“Oh, um…I actually have to take Sabina to school and then I need to run some errands for my mother”

This is only partially true because I need to go to the butchers for mother but then, afterwards, I will stop at Nicolson’s and pick up some more textbooks that no one needs to know about.

Alex now looks downcast and walks away, muttering some mild insult at himself under his breath. I know I was rude but I just can’t stand that boy, partially because he’s dull and dreary like everything else in this town and partially because I know that he’s father’s first pick for my husband. I heard father talking with mother about it last month, about how well off and traditional he is and “perfect for our Catalina”. You see, if I could I would jump onto the next train leaving this remote village, but no, I’m not allowed to. Everything here has been same old; same old for hundreds of years, life should be an adventure, but not here. Bound to Alex, I will never be able to live life to the fullest, let alone leave this town.

So, this is my idea, I am going to college. For a girl in my village that is quite a feat since we are pulled out of school at 13, but for the last two years, good old Nicolson, owner of Nicolson’s supply store has been saving me textbooks and other school supplies from the shipments he receives for the boys, lucky them, school until they’re 17. I will keep doing this and apply for college, whether my parents like it or not.

Years pass by and life drags slowly on like a snail, taking it’s time, interested in the most boring of things. I come to love the nights in my room, filling my head with wonderful knowledge, like candy, sweetening my mind, letting it grow fat with ideas and concepts. I apply for college and hope for the best. My only discomfort of leaving home is Sabina. She is the shining beacon in my life, the bright light that keeps out the darkness around me. I will miss her.

One day in late spring, Nicolson tells me he’s received a letter from the University of Romania in Bucharest. Anxiously I tear it open. The news that it bears fills me with a joy that I’ve never felt before. I rush home and that night I read it many times. But my parents still stand in the way. I must devise a plan.

This august, before the first term begins and around my eighteenth birthday, I will get a one way ticket to Bucharest and ride the train out of my sorrows and into a new beginning. This is what I planned would happen until one night in July.

My family and I are eating dinner when my parents break the news to me, I can’t remember the exact conversation but my dad said that since I was to come of age to marry next month they had been thinking of possible suitors and had chosen Alex to be the best match for me, what an unexpected surprise. Furthermore they had talked to his father and him and they had said yes! We are to be married immediately after my birthday!

I am so upset, what about my dreams, my future, my education, my life? All these have been bashed in a single blow. I must act now before it’s too late. Once everyone’s gone to bed I sneak out into the darkness of night. After a brief hurried walk, I reach the train station. In my pocket I feel the coins I have been saving up for this escape. I buy a ticket quickly, hoping no one asks questions. I hear the shrill train whistle in the distance and before I know it, I am stepping onto the train and into my future.

Even though this may be the end, for me it is only the beginning.