This week someone asked me what I didn't like about England, and straight away the answer comes: the weather! Then this same person asked me what I liked about it, and as funny as it may sound, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that. I guess most people come here to work or study and they continue to idealize their homes as the perfect place, and England as this cold place with ‘cold’ people that they had to face and that they’ll never have a passion for the country itself.
I’ve got to admit that this was sort of my feeling as well. I came here to fulfil a dream of living abroad, somewhere where its native language was English, and that's when the Queen’s island came along. I used to see here as just a cold place where I could not make friends easily, locals would never become my real friends, and I have to say, even after a year here, perhaps two, such feeling still persisted.
Well, back to the original question, what I like about the UK? Hummm... It’s more about what it allowed me to live here, what this country has contributed to my personal growth. It is just precious what I have learnt about myself and the ones around me, the discovery of how much I love my parents which I didn’t have a clue of how powerful that could be before, that being alone is not feeling alone and feeling alone is not necessarily being alone, that friends are the angels we could not choose as family, that people come and go but some will always live in our hearts, that life sometimes closes doors but God always finds a way to open us a window, and that when things seem to be finally settling down life comes and changes it all over again, because that’s the cycle of life, and we must not see it negatively, some losses are just necessary.
I know that maybe any other country could have helped me experience all that, but in my case it was the cold island. I guess I’m starting to think that I actually didn’t choose the UK, for some reason, that I yet don’t know, the UK chose me. And hopefully, the best is yet to come.
[Karla]
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Well, dear, I for one am witness to the great changes that little cold island has made to you. Talk about opening a shell and letting your true self come pouring out!!! I'm proud of the way you have embraced the writer within you and how you are not scared to move on. Congratulations my dear friend and may the island be the first stepping stone of many great adventures to come!
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