My eighty-three year old grandfather handed me an overwhelmingly thick book titled “Sheils Family History” and said, “Here; look through this. Maybe you’ll run into one of these people.” I suppressed a laugh, thinking of the near zero probability of me “running into” one of my distant family members as I travelled abroad for the next two weeks. However impatient, I sat quietly listening to my grandpa chirp away about our ancestors and his war stories, while I pictured myself for the next fourteen days in a completely new place. In August of 2014 I boarded trains, planes, and automobiles to travel to London, and eventually Edinburgh, Scotland to participate in the International Fringe Festival, the largest venue in the world for performers
