As a university student, I didn’t take the straight path to graduation. I studied for a few years, struggling to find my place, switching majors and going undeclared for a year before coming to the realization that I should probably take a year off to figure out how I wanted to proceed.
During that year I was away from school, I got a job working as a Beverage Server on the Disney Wonder cruise ship. Those are stories for another post, but during my time on board, I made friends with a lot of other young people from all over the world who were also living and working on board. One of those friends was Max, a bartender from Brazil who lived in London.
When my contract with Disney Cruise Line was up, I returned to Western for one final year to finish my Bachelor of Arts in English. My home that year was a solo room at Sydenham Hall residence, where I lived while taking classes in American Literature, Shakespeare and Medieval English. When it came time for Reading Week, I arranged to visit my friend Max in London. Traveling down to Florida to join the crew of the Wonder had been my first ever experience flying, so I had a little more confidence as I booked my round-trip ticket to London.
Max lived in Finsbury Park, so I took the tube from Heathrow all the way there, where he met me and welcomed me into his flat. While he worked during the day, I explored the city, visiting all of the major tourist spots like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Shakespeare’s Globe. Student admission to these places was cheap, and I found it so meaningful to follow in the footsteps of the great writers and poets I was studying back in Ontario.
Now I find myself planning a return visit to London all these years later, and I’m curious to see how the city will feel when I return. I’ll have two days to relax and adjust to the time change before heading to Southampton to board another cruise ship, this time for a Seminar at Sea with Royal Caribbean.
My plans for London are flexible. I’d like to visit Kensington Palace, Covent Garden and the National Gallery. Beyond that, I plan to see where my feet take me. For a city that is hundreds of years old, I doubt it will have changed much in the 23 years since I was last there. I’m the one who has changed.