Author: Charla Burnett

Publisher:

Published: 2019-10-27

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781795460507

This is not another eat, pray, love story. You will not be finding yourself reading the inner existential crisis of a mediocre western woman in South East Asia, leaving her inhibitions to the hands of idle men. This story is not about love, although there has been love. It is not about second chances or some sort of self-healing guru rendition of the young women who, against all odds, made it out of poverty. This story is about agency, self-determination, and the discovery of how to manipulate the reality around me. It is about making connections between the abstract and the foreign from the perspective of a young woman, pressured by patriarchy; she rebelled with her tattoos and piercings to be her own hero and potentially a hereon in the global effort for peace, justice, and equality.As I am riding a rickety rusted-out blue bus smelling of petrol and cleaning chemicals across a highway three hours north of Bangkok, I can't help but reflect on my life's journey. It has not been an ordinary one, drinking imported beer along the Seine in Paris, conducting research on war-related rape in Liberia, dodging bullets at checkpoints in Occupied Palestine, how did a girl from a trailer park in Michigan come to redefine her socio-economic status to take on the world's most corrupt powers?When I retell my story, usually in a dust-covered Irish pub located in the dodgiest neighborhood I can find, I always receive the same reaction, "how old are you?" Age is just a number, one that is measured by an agrarian methodology, not by your actual experiences here on Earth. "I'm twenty-nine years old, but it feels like I've lived someone else's lifetime." I must forewarn you; this is not a romantic comedy where I meet some amazing person who sweeps me off my feet. This is not a fairy tale. I do not sugar coat my sexual exploits, the death and destruction I have seen working in conflict countries or lie about who and what is responsible for our lack of morality. This also not some humanitarian manifesto where I try to convince you to save the world or a jaded description of how utterly fucked we all are. It's a memoir of a young woman who, despite this chaotic world, found humanity in hidden places.***To help support refugees and other stateless individuals caused by climate change and violent conflict, 20% of all revenue will be donated to the UNHCR, the largest intergovernmental organization for refugees in the world.***