Sometimes I wonder where I would be had I not met you and been fortunate enough to grow close with you for the last five months of my life. It's not a thought I particularly enjoy engaging with because I know that my time studying abroad in London would not have been nearly as amazing as it has been without you right there beside me. Instead, I like to spend my time journaling about our adventures and reminiscing about all the wonderful conversations, inside-jokes, and food-excursions we've gone on together as our time here begins to close.
They say that home is rarely a place, but a person, or many persons, and I've come to realize how true that statement is. Maybe I would have loved London anyway had I been more on my own without your support and friendship, however I know for a fact that the reason I love London now is because you've made this place my home away from home. We've gone through so much together in these last few months, watching each other grow as people and get ready for our lives after all of this is said and done, and I feel so unbelievably lucky to have gotten the opportunity to meet you all and be a part of your life journeys.
I used to think fate was just a stupid made-up lie people would say just to get out of taking responsibility for things, but the more I meet people like you, the more I start to wonder whether certain people enter our lives for specific reasons that shift our world on its axis. I don't know if that means it was fate that brought all of us together or if it was simply a coincidence that all of us happened to decide to study abroad at the exact same place despite coming from completely opposite ends of North America, but whatever the reason was for us to be here in this moment, I owe the universe a massive thank you. I'm a better human being because I have been fortunate enough to know you.
When I go back home in June, people will ask me to tell stories and share pictures of my adventures in Europe, and I already know what I'll tell them. They'll want to hear about the places I've seen and the food I've eaten, but I'll tell them about you. I'll tell them that I made some of the best friends I've ever had while I studied abroad and they absolutely changed my life. They'll know that you made me a stronger human being when I thought I was at my weakest. You made me laugh when I was having a hard day, you motivated me when I didn't have the strength in me to find it myself, and above all, you inspired me. You each came in with such amazing goals and dreams and have such a strong fire in your souls that I know is going to carry you so far in life, and I will tell everyone that you have inspired me to find my own fire.
You have helped me grow so much as a person, and to find it in myself to love myself more than I did. Maybe superheroes are people like Iron Man and Captain Marvel, but superheroes are also people like you, who save ordinary people like me without even knowing it. You have been my life jacket since day one, keeping me afloat when the waves got too high and the weather was too difficult to surmount on my own. I am grateful for you more than you will ever know.
As our time here together is coming to a close, I wish you all the best as we head back to our homes so far away from one another. I know that this will not be a goodbye forever, but simply a see you later, someday.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
