I prefer to take the long way. The scenic route. I avoid the major streets and opt to take the side roads instead. I like things still and observable, and the freedom to take any turn I like without being stuck behind someone. Without having to wait for anyone else to get out of my way. I like to be free of the confines of others. Admiring the canopy of trees which swallow the road's horizon, rather than dreary concrete runways and the monotony of stop lights. It takes twice as long to get where I'm going, but that's the way I like to travel. It's just better like this.
It is far more difficult to avoid the distractions of the past, however. Lurking on the side streets are places I have already been, with people whom I once knew and was fond of. Coming to grips with an old me who I continue to mourn as I evolve into someone else who is as yet a stranger to me. I am merely an acquaintance to myself at this point. Sort of lost, and doddling, planting roots into the things I hope mean something to me. I try to make them mean something.
But the phantoms buzz around me like gnats. I swat at them, curse them, look at them with disgusted curiosity and a rotting feeling in my guts. They kick me in the teeth right after I have brushed and flossed, just because they can. It's all I can do to stay busy, just to keep the phantom gnats at bay. If I sit still, they will eat me alive.