Road to Elsewhere, Excerpt #20*: How to Create Your Own Days, Rather than Have Somebody Else Fill them For You

I knew a few things when I was twenty-two. That kid is poking me in the ribs today, asking, "Really? This is how you live now?"

AFTER RUNNING THROUGH MULTIPLE CARNETS (10-packs) of Metro tickets during my first days in Paris, I caught on to the Carte d’Orange, the all-train, all-bus, all-the-time pass to the city. It required a visit to a kiosk and extensive conversation in French with a French person, which left me glowing with sweat and bafflement the first time I did it. 

Stil…