When I Look Back

cre: When I Look Back

When I think back to York, I think back to all the adventures I’ve had, the places I’ve been lucky enough to see, and the people who will stay with me for the rest of my life, but as I write this reflection, I felt like I was leaving much of my trip behind.

I wrote about my travels, about my experiences, about my friends, but never about one of the best things that happened to me in York. I fell in love with someone. Fell hard, pure and simple.

We met randomly on a bus. I was coming back from a party. He was getting pizza (good start I know). The two of us just started chatting like no one else was on that bus. It was the fastest bus ride ever because before I knew it we were walking separate paths. That was it. I didn’t see him again for another six weeks and honestly forgot about the entire encounter that even happened until I finally saw him again.

He was sitting at a table full of people when I walked down the stairs adjacent to his table. He had his back to me, so he didn’t see me, but I recognized him immediately. I wanted to run and say hello, but literally the table was full of strangers, so I kept walking and sat at my own table to watch a football game.

The game ends and I start to leave when I meet other friends and they ask me to stay and play pool. Of course, I agreed, played a game, and that’s when I saw him come out himself. We made eye contact and resumed like we were never done. We chatted for about half an hour until it was time to leave and I asked her to have a drink with me sometime. He accepted!

Four days later, we finally meet and go to my favorite pub for a drink. And the rest, they say, is history. From then on, he and I were inseparable. Forever next to each other. I did everything together, until I had to leave.

Four weeks… only four weeks. A month. Thirty days. That’s how long I’ve known him because yet saying goodbye to him was one of the toughest challenges I’ve ever faced. Stare out the train window as the platform he’s standing on begins to move further and further away from me. Until I can’t see him anymore. Worst train ride of my life.

I will always remember those three months spent in the UK. I have to travel and see a lot of what the UK has to offer. I made some best friends in York that I will never lose touch with. I learned a lot more than I suspected about the culture and (as cliché as it sounds) about myself, but, more importantly, I’ll look back on the short time I spent with him.

Falling in love with someone during an exchange is like a rose. Beautiful and pure but will eventually sting you. What we had was authentic. It was organic. And even though we both knew what we had was going to end, we didn’t let that stop us. I’m hurt to leave him, but I wouldn’t have changed him for anything else.

In the end, what I went through was undoubtedly difficult, but I would never encourage anyone to close themselves to a romance abroad. It really opened my eyes to what a relationship should be. Study Abroad = Relationships.

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