Five Years in London

Sunday, September 20, 2015

"London Clouds" by Stefano Montager is licensed by CC by 2.0 

Every time I see that Samuel Johnson quote, I get a bit pissed off. You know the one, it’s the one that goes, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” Well, I can safely say that London’s tired me out. I’ve not even made it halfway through this life and I am exhausted.

Five years. I never thought I’d get to five years. I didn’t think I’d get to stay after one.

I moved here at 22 to start my master's course, having never lived outside of Virginia before. I’d never even lived an hour away from my parents before, much less a six hour plane journey over 3,000 miles.

New York had always been the goal for me—my best friend in high school got into this fantastic New York college and I wanted to join her there, but tuition fees kept me from going out of state. Funnily enough that same reason got me to London later in life.

But it was easy. I slipped right into London life seamlessly like I'd lived this life 20 times over.