Faithful Fiction: Leslie Ross' Journey Toward her Dreams

She could never remember how she had succumbed to the allure of the West. Maybe it was through the movies when she was a kid, or maybe it had been her parents who told her tales of their youth and their travels. There had always been a part of her that longed to go out into the world and explore, but within a few years of graduating college she found herself married to a nice man with a steady job, living in an apartment in Boston, and writing blogs for various websites. She just didn’t have the courage to take that step into the unknown world of adventure.

A few years passed before she noticed that life was passing by faster than she would like. It had taken her a while to realize, but eventually she began to realize that something wasn’t quite right. She felt stuck, as though she were perpetually eighteen years old, except now she was facing the prospect of having children. For five years she stayed home with her kids and wrote articles whenever she got the chance. Eventually, however, she knew that if she wanted to remain sane she had to take risks, so one day after her youngest child was born she left them at home and took off on what would become known as “the trip that changed my life.”

The trip lasted two weeks, during which time Leslie visited different cities across the country. She met many people along the way, some of whom inspired her and others who made her feel small and unimportant. She saw places she had only heard about in books and movies, tasted food from different cultures, and spent nights lying awake listening to rain on tarps outside cheap motel rooms as she stared up at unfamiliar stars in a midnight sky. It was difficult at times, but in the end it was everything she hoped it would be and then more. When it was over Leslie knew that her life would never be the same again.

When Leslie returned home she tried to put down in words what the trip meant to her. What emerged from those jumbled thoughts were essays about life and its intricacies - about things like death and love - and one day someone asked if they could publish them as a book. When Leslie balked at the idea they assured her that they wouldn’t do anything too crazy; they just wanted to print them onto paper using an old-fashioned printing press and sell it locally through local bookstores in order to raise money for charity.

She agreed, thinking it would be nice to see something tangible come out of this experience – whatever that experience might be – but when the book came out there were no copies for sale anywhere near where Leslie lived. The bookstore owner assured her that he would ship copies directly to people who ordered online; however, no matter how many times Leslie checked online there were never any books for sale. Either way, it didn’t matter because before long the orders started rolling in from all over the world: Australia, Italy, Japan... even people who lived in other countries bought copies! It blew Leslie away because it seemed as though no one else had ever written anything like this before; certainly there were books about traveling around America or Europe or Africa or wherever – most of which involved people living out their dreams – but none of them seemed quite like hers did.

In fact you might say that hers was unique in every sense of the word because not only did they make people think but they also made them laugh! A lot of people said that they didn’t know if they should laugh or cry when they read them because sometimes Leslie seemed so serious yet at other times she seemed so goofy; yet whatever emotions arose from reading them people couldn’t help but be sucked into her words – both literally and figuratively speaking! In fact some said it was almost as if you could hear her voice reading you each essay as you read along; others said it sounded more like an audio book than a blog post! In any case everyone agreed: these essays were special indeed!