Beyoncé Pad Thai Part 3

Awhile ago I added a suffix to my warrior name. My inner warrior’s full name is now Zelda Stormcrow Dreamchaser. She wears an eye patch over her missing right eye, has silver hair, and is a kick ass blend of modern renegade military soldier, fantasy sorceress and dragon-slaying knight.

My departure for Europe is now a mere 36 hours away, and ZSD has been on my mind a lot. I have no real expectations of my trip beyond seeing some beautiful sights, drinking some delicious beer and sleeping in some bug-ridden accommodations, but of course, the prospect that it will change both myself and my life is a little hard to ignore. But it’s not as if the Travel Gods just come down to earth with a clipboard and a checklist to find out what specifically about yourself and the way you live your life you’d like to have change while abroad.

This is why Zelda Stormcrow Dreamchaser has taken up such a large swathe of my imagination over the past couple of weeks. As a warrior, she is a master of the sword, bow, gun, martial arts, magical spells, riding horses, driving sports cars and being great. And these are all very important skills for an inner warrior to have. The only problem is, the demons I need to face abroad cannot be sliced, shot, punched, magicked or driven down. They need to be laughed at.

If ZSD is to be my symbol of fearlessness, then she has to stare down my phobia of being embarrassed and making mistakes , and not only know that she can turn them into dust in seconds, but do it with a twinkle of hilarity and mischief in her deep, dark eye.

And then go have a dance party.

Beyoncé Pad Thai Part 2

I am not Meg, I am a warrior and my warrior name is Zelda Stormcrow.

Beyoncé Pad Thai

I’ve been getting some serious cold feet syndrome over the past few weeks. The more people come to me with encouragement and advice, the more I hear the sentence, “You’re gonna have soo much fun,” the scarier Europe seems to become. What if I burn out after four days? What if I hate every minute of it and the whole thing was a big waste? What if I don’t meet a single soul and spend the entire five weeks huddled in the hostel bathrooms sobbing?

One of the funniest moments to date in a great show called The Mindy Project – created by The Office’s Mindy Kaling – happens after Mindy receives advice from a friend of hers to create for herself an inner warrior to whom she can appeal when she’s faced with a difficult situation.

In the middle of a trying moment, the camera zooms in on Mindy as she whispers to herself...

I choked with laughter, not only because of the great warrior name but also because the impulse to imagine a stronger, better me has always been present, and seeing yourself reflected back at you in such a hilarious fashion is always delightful.

I don't have a warrior name yet, but maybe I should figure one out before I leave for Europe.