Reflection. The People I Have Come To Know.

Two weeks. No less than that. Today is December 10^th, 2012. Exactly 12 days and 1 hour till I board the plane, ending my time here in Oxford.
I almost feel that leaving will be like heading back to reality. I have been in Neverland for three and a half months, but now? Now I have to go back and grow up.

I find myself resisting this, I don’t want to leave the peace of England. Because that is what England is. Peaceful.  It’s quite and kind of dark and nobody talks very loud.

      This past Friday, the seventh of December, was when it really hit me that my time here was coming to an end.

Adam, the first one of my newly made British friends to head home. His departure opened up my eyes and made me realize that despite the bonds I’ve made they would have to be severed. 

I owe all of my British friends to John and Justin.

It all began due to their desire to  wander around our block, hoping to meet “foreign people”. They were successful and ran back into our flat screaming, “We got invited to a British flat!”

My first thought, what am I going to wear?

Later that night we went over, I was nervous. I had to look nice to meet these people that I knew nothing about.

Walking in was slightly awkward, no one really knew what to say to each other, except pass around names. A division began to form in the room, the Americans with the Americans and the Brits with the Brits.

Someone jumped up. The idea to take a group picture had been proposed and everyone slowly got up, awkward as to where to stand. It ended up being a brilliant idea because what it did was it got all of us out of our seats so when we sat back down we were forced to intermingle.

After that the conversation started to flow.

Slowly people began to leave until the only people left were me, Cassie, and our newly made British friends, Olly, Adam, and Tom. For some reason we were all drawn to each other, we all got along well and laughed the night away attempting to explain the cultural differences between our two countries.

After that night the idea that I would be going home in four months vanished from my head and I didn’t think about it again until last Friday, when I was saying goodbye to one of the closest friends I have made here.

I came over to Oxford with the intention to see all of Europe. I find myself pleased that I didn’t achieve that goal. Yes, I did travel, I saw major cities in England, Paris, and Venice, experiencing in the diversity that each one held.

I remember at orientation, Dr. Winter sharing his words of wisdom to us before we departed. He said staying in Oxford we had two options. We could travel some but spend most of our time in Oxford, completely immersing ourselves in the culture or we could just go everywhere possible in Europe.

At the time the mere thought of spending one weekend in Oxford was appalling. I was going to be in England! A stone throw away from all of 

Europe! Why would I want to stay in Oxford?

But once I got to Oxford, the second I made friends, the thought of not hanging out with them for a weekend was unheard of.

Even though the summer preceding I was already planning which hostels I would stay at, planning my trips, once I got to Oxford I fell in love and all my plans just melted away from my mind.

What I gained from just living in Oxford is that now I have a goal. I know now that one day, every soon I want to live in England. Not all my life mind you, the dreary winter is something I would find hard to deal with for too long. I want to travel, but not for a weekend. I want to pick places across the world and live there for no less than a month.

I have realized that I love the cultural experience, I love noticing the little differences in the way people do things, from their fashion choices or how the store eggs.

I have changed from the person who wants to pick one place and stay there for the rest of my life to a person who wants to be able to say that I have lived every place in the world.

Living in Oxford has taught me how to survive in “the real world”. I have learned about money, how to navigate a grocery store and how to take care of myself in times of illness. I have always been a highly independent person but living in Oxford showed me that I can survive on my own. It prepared me to jump in the waters of adulthood and never look back.

But I will have to look back. 

In 12 days and 1 hour I will leave England and go back to my parents house, back to the restricted rules of childhood. 

I am not on my own yet.

          I gained so much from living here in Oxford, I feel as if I am almost an entirely different person than that nervous girl who got off the plane, worried she wasn’t going to make any friends.

Reminiscing about the time I have spent here and the friends I have made, while flipping through photos and rereading my blog, I know that even though I may be leaving, I know I am too stubborn not to come back. 

Living in Oxford has been the best experience of my life. I will never forget my time here, the traveling I have done and most of all the friends I have made. Because even though leaving feels like the bonds are severing I know that the people I have meet here, the people I have spent all of my time with for the past three and a half months, will never fully leave my life.