Beatrice from the Esurance commercial flashed thru my mind when I read this trip report. "That is not the way it works. That is not the way any of this works". I am sorry that I do not find any words of wisdom for this situation only to say that the 13 year old reader who was "inspired" by this act of adventure to please wipe that thought from your mind. Am I the only one to thinking this absolutely thoughtless and leading to train wreck? The only sensible solution would be to take the money from your first paycheck and buy a ticket home. Get a job, save your money and have detailed plan in place including your own lodging, reliable transportation and a savings account established for rainy days before moving "anywhere". It is good to have dreams/goals but they just need some planning and thought.
Is her plan horrifically risky? Absolutely. Could she have potentially planned it better? Probably. However, she does seem to have landed on her feet for the most part, so maybe it's not as "fly by the seat of her pants" as some of us might think. She's training for a job at Disney and has a place to stay. She has a skill she can use to get by for the time being. Right now, the only huge misstep I saw was not checking her oil prior to a long car ride. I'm sure she learned from that, though, and will never make that mistake again.
She took a major risk, but if it all works out in the end, it would all be worth it. The alternative would be to stay in Boston for most of her life wondering what might have been. A wise man on an alt-rock album once said, "it's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done."
Hoping for the best for her. Also hoping my kids are a bit less risky, but that's just me being the hyper-cautious dud that I am
In closing, I think your comment IS valuable to this discussion, especially to the 13-year-old who cited her as an inspiration. It's always good, IMO, to give kids as much info as possible, from different perspectives, so they can ultimately make their own, informed decisions.