Ed goes on an around the world trip

Ed discovered on his 18th birthday that he had been left some money by his father so he used the money to take a year out travelling. His mom was horrified and forbade him but he was young enough to be utterly adventurous and while not quite resenting his mother he felt the need for freedom acutely enough to ignore her edicts and arrange the trip himself. Holly fretted, worried, begged, threatened but her son was determined so eventually she helped him.

Ed travelled spent a month in South America, two in Africa, three in Europe and six in Asia. It was this independence that finally helped him develop into the kind of man he had always hoped to be. Outside the influence of his mom he tried many new activities and expanded his life experience in ways he could never have imagined had he not left the safety of his mother's nest. As his horizons expanded so to did his mind, his confidence and indeed his physique. On his travels he did a variety of charity work or worked in bars for a while, both gave him plenty of opportunities to meet women and knowing that he'd be travelling on soon taught him to seize the moment with people in a way he would never otherwise have possibly known.