its a wild world: May 2013

Sunday, May 26, 2013

I love people

I thought of a lovely little memory today while driving...

As I waited for the bus outside of my favorite bar, The Monarch, on a Saturday night, a young couple came up to my friend and I.
"Does this jacket look good on me?" He asked as he raised his arms and shrugged his shoulders.
The girlfriend laughed and shook her head and looked at us.
"It's her jacket, but how does it look?" He said.
"We drew coat check tickets and had to wear whichever jacket we got," she said in his oversized coat.
"I don't think it looks too bad on me."
"No, it looks good," I say, "but the sleeves might be a little short. Just keep your arms down." I turn to the girlfriend, "at least you can pull that one off," looking at the bagginess of his jacket over her shoulders. "Him, I'm not so sure about."
The girlfriend continued to laugh, then answered her ringing phone. The boyfriend laughed, shook my hand, and told me to have a good night.

I am not sure if in that moment I had a tremendous love for London or for mankind. I assumed it was because they were friendly brits, but I am sure couples do things like that in America too. The fact that this couple came up to us and was able to laugh and joke around with strangers made me truly appreciate people. Human beings need to joke around more, share a laugh with strangers, and make life fun.

So next time you go to a bar with a boyfriend, girlfriend, friend, brother, sister, whomever, switch coat check tickets, it's a good laugh.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The people I met

I have missed my friends these past two weeks more than anything. I miss being able to walk down the hall to Lauren's room or hearing Kelly stomp down the hall to come find me. I miss riding the tube with Emily and worshipping Julie under Julieism. The friendships I made in London will last forever. It sounds cliche, but it is the truth. I went to London not knowing if I would make good friends. I had a fear of just making friends I could tolerate, but not truly enjoy. I was the luckiest girl in the world to meet the six other people from my college and fall in love with them. A week or two later, we picked up four people from the University of New Hampshire and the 11 of us were stuck together the rest of the time. I branched out and made friends from all over America and learned so much about my homeland as well as England. I was never without someone when I was bored or upset, and I always had a companion when I wanted to explore. We all had the mentality of this being a once in a lifetime experience and knew that we had to make the most of it. I am eternally grateful that I was given these people.

I often think about why it took me till my spring semester of the third year of college to study abroad. When looking at colleges during high school and going on tours, I would focus the most of the study abroad program and the places offered. It was something I always knew I would do and was excited to embark on the journey. But why did I wait so long? I like to live my life by a few philosophies, one of which being that everything happens for a reason. I believe that I was meant to study this semester because the people I met made my experience and I would never have met any of them without going to London. It would have been a completely different life if I did not have these people and my roommate by my side. I love them all dearly and know that when we are old and gray, we will sit around a table talking about that one time in London...

Do we have time for a photo montage??