It is Monday morning, December 6, 2010, and I am sitting in class. I really should be paying attention to the fact that we are discussing how Post Modernity is affecting the world that I live in, but I can’t seem to concentrate on anything other than the fact that this is the last Monday I will be sitting in a lecture room until Mid-January 2011. I have been in England for 10 weeks, and have completed 1/9 of my degree at this point. Those facts create an odd sensation within me. As I reflect on this time, there are a few events that stick out, but in truth, I am living my life here just as much as I would be living my life back in the Harbor.
I arrived in England in all reality, alone. I flew by myself, stayed in a hotel alone, shopped, traveled, figured out things like phones, banking, and really odd food all by myself. To sum it up simply, I had to be a grown up. I had to be a grown up that was isolated from everything that I found familiar, and had no community at all to lean on. It was a thrilling experience, but at the end of the day, I was relieved when the day came for me to move into college.
It is easy to skip over all the awkward getting to you know bits that inevitably exist when you move into a new community, but those things are what truly bond you to the people around you. I was thrown into a mad house full of people who spoke with funny accents, and used funny words that had a completely different meaning if no meaning at all in America. The thing is though; the laughs that just those words and accent differences created are some of the iron strings that created the strong friendships I now have. Within several days I was no longer alone.
I have had experience upon experience that were highly unique and invaluable to me. I have lived life with people in a different way from anything I have experienced before. I suppose most people could say that when they leave to go live in a dorm situation, but something tells me this is a lot more different then going off to live in the UW housing. We became a family.
I think I have mentioned it before, but I am so blessed. I now have three amazing families; they all have different aspects and feelings to them, but they are all dear to my heart. My Moorlands family is quite the lot, but I am pretty sure my other two families are as well. I think they have stretched me more than any other family though. They have touched my heart in ways that none of them could even begin to comprehend.
I cannot wait to go home. I cannot wait to see my other two families. I cannot wait to eat American food. I cannot wait to sleep in. I cannot wait to drive on the right side of the road. I cannot wait for so many things, but I will miss it here. I will miss the people who have become a part of my extended family. We have lived an INTENSE 10 weeks together, full of love, laughter, tears, boredom, drama, and joy, and it is going to be weird to just up and leave it for a while. Hopping the pond, it is going to become a rather regular thing in my life, but I now know that every time I get on a plane, whether it be in Seattle or London, that I am leaving pieces of my heart on both continents.
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