“Get back here this instant, Elizabeth!” I ignore my mother as I run, not even looking back, hiking the layers of petticoat up as I run. I’d already loosened my corset and slipped on my leather boots, so running wasn’t as difficult. But I’d forgotten how cumbersome it was to run in a dress.

“Elizabeth!” Mother screamed. This time I did look back. I saw her looking around for goodness knows who. Papa passed away nearly three years ago and my younger sister, Emmeline, certainly wasn’t going to hop on a horse and catch me. “I’ll not marry a man I do not love! You’ll never see me again so long as that’s what you expect of me!” I shout back, not slowing my step.

Mother cannot marry me off to an old man in exchange for financial stability. I will not be sold or exchanged. I won’t settle for a domestic life, trapped inside a hollow house. A prison cell is still a prison cell, no matter how many valuable possessions it is adorned with. I have too much I want to do. I keep on running, my mother’s contradictions slowly fading behind me.

I run and run and run. I turn left then right then left again, jumping over branches and dodging rocks until I tire so much that my feet cannot bear to take another step. I collapse onto the grass and roll around. “Freedom!” I yell in between gasps for air. I’m surrounded by nothing but grass and fog.

As I look up at the cloudy sky, I see an infinite world ahead of me. I could be an explorer and see the world on board a ship, or a writer who tells stories of wit and adventure. But what I want most, what I’ve always wanted, is to teach young girls and boys with a hunger for learning just as I had.

I slowly rise, tripping over the fabric of my dress as I stand. I take a deep breath in, and walk through the door of possibility, stepping off of the marked path, taking my first steps towards my new life.