one year ago

It's been one year since I arrived in London.  Can anyone believe that?  Because I honestly am having a hard time.  The experience still feels so close to my heart in so many ways.  I've said this before, and I will say it again--London healed my soul.  It sounds completely dramatic and superlative, but I believe it with all of my aforementioned soul. 2013 was the hardest year of my young life so far.  I was emotionally not in a happy place, and the one thing that kept me positive and motivated to go to class or even leave the house was the promise of London.

London did not disappoint.  It picked me up into its warm, yet slightly reserved and tentative arms and I haven't let it put me down since, like a kiddo who refuses to leave the arms of someone who lets them see over a tall fence (not like I know this feeling at 21 or anything...). Sure, there were times when it was hard to be in a big city far away--I missed my family and friends, and times I felt like a sore, colorful thumb in a posh city full of attractive black-wearing career types.  But the magical thing is that these moments shrink in comparison to the times that I felt like the luckiest lady in the world, living in one of the culture centers of the world, soaking up each moment like the highest industrial grade sponge.  I was always ready for the next adventure, big or small.  Sometimes it meant getting a pastry in South Ken on my way back to the flat or taking a train to an English village for the weekend with friends.  I took this adventurous spirit with me throughout Europe, and continue to feel it bubbling in me each day back in the states.   I can't wait to travel more! I think about it everyday! I want to so bad!  Please!?  Now if I could just get better at saving my money...

Every moment in London was an opportunity and each moment, even the mundane ones like grocery shopping were magic (the subtle kind that usually included Cadbury chocolate).  Eventually I felt like I was truly a part of the city, one of the locals just swiping their oyster card to get to their third theatre performance that week (okay, maybe that's not so normal) or heading to their favorite tea house in the East End to get some homework done.  I found the places in London that felt like home and left knowing there is so much more left of London for me to still discover and claim as my own.

I miss you, London.  I will be back.