Life Lessons - an essay contest
This is the first draft of an essay that I'm writing for a contest I found the other day. It's still quite short (we're allowed up to 1500 words, and I want to USE THEM ALL). Let me know if you have any thoughts/suggestions. We're meant to finish the statement, "I never thought I'd...." and go from there. It's like this contest was made for me.
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I never thought I'd spend three years studying Creative Writing in London. It started with a ten day vacation in 2004 with one of my best friends for New Year's. At age nineteen and seventeen, we were going to London, and that trip would be the seed that planted a dream inside of me. There was something about the city that weaved itself in and out of my heart, and left me craving more tea, and those fit accents.
Two years after that perfect vacation, I boarded an airplane, left my life in Virginia, and embarked on a three year life journey that changed me in so many different ways; the lessons still unravel themselves when I'm not looking. I am forever changed, mostly in a good way.
Charles Dickens wrote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," and he couldn't have been more right. This would be the first time I lived away from home and in a different country no less, where I didn't understand the concept of currency exchange rates. It didn't take me long to learn that the US dollar is worth nearly half of the Great British pound. The money I had saved up before I'd left quickly drained from my account, all of a sudden leaving me a poor student in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
It was the best of times, though, and when I look back, I can think of all the great friends I made, all of our silly stories, and all of the places we ventured to. I remember the city, the days I spent in so many different parks sitting outside underneath the London sunshine, and feeling like this was all I needed in the world; just give me a park, my iPod, a sandwich from a local cafe, and I'm good to go.
I walked everywhere, which I believe is the best way to explore any new city, and learned how to live like a local. See that store? That's the best place to go if you want to buy vintage items at a decent price. And don't take the train; it's much easier to get to if you hop on the bus. Camden is the place to go for live music. Wimbledon has some lovely parks. Central is where you go for a big night out, but don't bother with that one club that everyone's talking about, because it's crap and well overpriced.
It was certainly the worst of times, too, and I paid a much higher price for some things that left me emptier than my Barclays bank account. I over indulged on the high streets buying too much of the latest London fashion that I could not afford, and paraded all of that new fashion in the evenings living, as my mom would say, "outside my means." I partied hard, fell harder, and left a lasting fingerprint on the city that I had a dangerous love/hate relationship with.
The city drained me, and the part of me that came to London to learn about Creative Writing - something that I love - had disappeared. I became a shell of who I once was and wondered for a long time if it ever was the right decision for me.
Nearly two years have passed by. I've decompressed, de-toxed, and decided that it was one of the best decisions I've ever made (right up there with getting a tattoo, and seeing Flogging Molly perform live). The best of times far outweigh the worst of times. I am one of the lucky ones who got to experience a dream, and that is something to really cherish and be proud of.