After receiving a master’s degree in English, this week’s Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010 contributor 
ran away from academia and joined the circus: Landon Spencer.
When did you first hit the road? How did it go?
I come from a family that doesn’t travel much (my father is married to a Mexican-American woman and lives in Southern California but has never been to Mexico) so I’m still surprised sometimes when I look around at this life on the road that I’ve been living.
About five years ago I abruptly gave up everything that was stable in my life. I indulged in a couple of months of semi-depressed wine-and-chocolate directionless limbo. Then the circus called, quite literally. Cavalia, an acrobatic and equestrian show, knew that I had done some trick riding and roping in my youth and asked if I was interested in auditioning. “Come and play with us…” beckoned the French accented message left on my phone. Though it had been ten years since I’d even sat on a horse, I knew it was the opportunity I was waiting for. I joined the show in Montreal and have been touring North America and Europe with Cavalia ever since. Read the rest of this entry »
