I always dreamed of seeing the outside world - Paris, London, New York, and Tokyo. It's just that fascinating feeling you get when you see something new. Certainly, everyone has that inquisitive trait in their minds, somewhere. You just have to find it, and when you do, it's tough trying to make it go away.

My room was full of postcards taped to the walls, all of the different places I wanted to visit before I died, my most recent postcard being from San Fransisco.

I was just a college student in the suburbs of St. Louis, but who would've thought a girl like me could travel to every place I wanted to go to, in one summer break.

'That's everything!' I told Amy, my dorm mate, as I grabbed my stuff and proceeded to exit the door.

Amy grabbed my shoulder and as I turned around, she quickly went to hug me. 'I'm going to miss you over the summer, and promise to bring me back something from somewhere!"

I laugh. I had grown close to Amy during my first months of college. She was like a college sister to me.

'I will,' I told her, 'When you pay me back for getting you and your boyfriend together.'

We share one last laugh before I start heading out, hiding my few tears from her as I made my way down the narrow halls of the dormitory building. I passed the many rooms until I finally made it to the elevator, which was empty. I counted down each floor until I made it to the main one, where I was met with clueless college drunks who had partied hard last night and scurrying valley girls, who were trying to get out of the place as soon as possible.

I open the doors of the front entrance and the beams of light hit my face like lasers. For a few seconds, I stand there, blinded, but it doesn't take long for me to regain my sight.

I was wearing sweatpants, the usual, and my older brothers baggy St. Louis Cardinals T-shirt I took from him two years ago. I threw my suitcases in the trunk of my red convertible from the 1990s. I turned the key in the ignition and drove down the traffic infested road right next to the college. Soon enough, the roads got less compacted, and more open the further I went out, and before I knew it, I was at my parent's house.

I could see my parents standing on the porch, anxiously awaiting to hug their little girl.

'Is Robert home?' I asked my parents as I gave them the tightest hug I ever had given.

My father nodded and I ran into the house, and into his room. 'Robert!' I squealed as I ran toward him.

'You're wearing my shirt,' he chuckled, 'keep it!'

I asked him, 'Really?'

He stood up from his bed and grabbed his baseball cap. Opening his mini-fridge, he grabbed a Sprite and opened it. 'Yeah!' he told me, 'I have more shirts like that, it's no big deal.'

I hugged him again, and I told him about all my college adventures, the college parties and what not. Robert didn't go to college because he chose to be like my father and run the family business.

My brother was very tall and extremely muscular. He was always wearing a baseball cap over his brown hair, and his brown eyes. He looked more like our father, and I looked more like our mother.

He was wearing a green Nike shirt and Adidas pants, and his slides. He was the more athletic of us two. But I made that up with adventure.

I was extremely close with my brother, and I told him everything and all of my problems.

'So you know how I'm going around the world for the summer, right?' I ask him.

He takes a sip of his Sprite before answering. 'Sure. Paris, London, and blah blah blah.'

He joked that way every day when we were younger, and it pissed me off to the extent that I didn't talk to him for a week.

'Do you want me to bring you something back?'

He shook his head, but he gave me the look he gave me every birthday and Christmas. He did want something.

I play punched him on the back and left his room and made my way down into the kitchen, where I opened the refrigerator door, grabbed a water, and plop myself onto our black leather couch in the family room.

I grabbed the remote and clicked on the power button. The Tv turned on, and I clicked the guide, in which I chose to watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

Soon enough, my mom heard the drama on the TV and rushed in to watch a little bit of TV before work.

'Did your father tell you?' she asked me as she gulped down her what seemed third glass of coffee.

'Tell me what?' I asked.

She sat down next to me and handed me an envelope. 'Open it, it's from us to you. Even Robert!'

I ripped open the top and pulled out a check, which was two thousand dollars. There was a note inside the envelope, and when I read it, I was engulfed with tears.

The letter read:

To our dearest Rachel, we love you so much and can't wait to see pictures of your adventures! Have fun!

Yours Truly,

The Family

I wiped away the tears with a tissue to notice my mascara was running. 'Thank you!" I told my mother as I hugged her.

Before I fixed my makeup, I said my thanks to both father and Robert. I hugged them, and entered into the bathroom where a makeup remover towel was waiting for me, and screaming to be used.

Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. Done.

Before I knew it, I had noticed the time and realized my flight to Bejing was in two hours.

TWO HOURS!

I rushed out of the bathroom and bolted down to my room, where an empty suitcase was waiting for me to fill it with clothes. Luckily, my other bag full of makeup, my toothbrush, and books was full and ready to be packed into the car, where a thirty-minute drive to the airport was awaiting me.

I stuffed my bag to the brim with pants, skirts, dresses, shirts, shorts, a sweater or two, and my pajamas.

One by one, I put the bags in the car, and it wasn't long before myself was buckled in, my father driving me to the airport.

'You have everything?' he asked me as he pulled out of the driveway.

I nodded, but never fully answered since I was so glued to my phone, texting Amy every ten seconds of what I was doing.

'Why so quiet?' he questioned, as he looked puzzled at me being so glued to my phone. 'We're almost there, Rachel.'

I turned off my phone and looked at him, 'Already? Well, thank you for taking me.'

He turned down the radio. 'My pleasure. Anything to spend some last minute time with my sweet girl.'

We pulled up to the airport, and as I grabbed all my bags and preceded to security, I saw this young women waiting for her bags. She looked oddly familiar but I didn't pay so much attention. She had long, blonde, and curly hair like my mom did, as well as the blue eyes, which turned hazel during the winter.

The police women patted me down and cleared me, and when I looked up to check what gate I was to go to, the women bumped into me.

'I'm so sorry!' she told me as she picked up her small, hot pink carry-on.

I looked her up and down and I noticed something even more strange. She was wearing the same Hey Violet shirt my mother had. But, that couldn't be my mother since she had died three years ago.