The Awkward Age of 19

Punting past King's College
19 is just an awkward number in general. When you're counting, you're almost to 20 but you stop at this weird number inbetween the divisible number of 18 and the lovely round number of 20. Being 19 years old is therefore just kind of weird. 18 is exciting because you are a legal adult in the US and 20 is leaving behind your teens and continuing the process of growing up. But poor 19 gets to be the awkward age in the middle. Not much generally happens on your 19th birthday because what do you celebrate? Well, personally, I never thought that I’d be celebrating my 19th birthday in England going punting on the river Cam in Cambridge. But that’s what happened! We did group punting down the river and I did try my hand at it. It is harder than it looks (as many things are) and takes more strength than you would think. I forget how difficult it is to pull things through water. I don’t have any pictures of myself but here is one of my friends punting her boat. We managed to not crash into too many other boats, the bridges or the walls so we felt that we succeeded overall.

Instagram collage from my birthday
Later that day, my friends kindly treated me to the classic British restaurant, Nando’s, fun fact, it’s actually Portuguese but why it’s classically British I don’t know. Then we looked around the Wren Library and peeked into King’s College. My friends headed elsewhere and I had my introvert time as I wandered into various antiquarian bookstores, caressing their leather covers, quietly admiring their beauty and wishing that I had more room in my suitcase and that the books weren’t so expensive! I found a beautiful pearl inlaid cover on a New Testament and some lovely Folio copies of various classics. I should have taken some photos. Back at the hostel for dinner, my lovely Wheaton in England friends gave me chocolate treats, a huge pin that said “It’s your 19th birthday!” on it and sang to me. It was incredibly sweet of them. I even found balloons in my bed as a surprise from one of my friends. I didn't really do any homework that night but relaxed in my room. All in all, a fabulous way of beginning my year of going on 20.


Trinity College
Cambridge was a cool college town. I would love to go to school there though I don’t think that Wheaton will let me transfer. But I kind of wish that I could have done a college visit there which were occurring while we were there. It was cool to see the lines of kids and their parents standing outside the gates and thinking that that was me not too long ago. I'm glad that I'm past that point and have moved to actually being a student. We checked out the various colleges especially the famous ones like Trinity, King’s and St. John’s with their illustrious alumni such as Wordsworth, A.A. Milne, Isaac Newton, John Dryden and many others. I wish that we had had more time there to check out the various museums, see the colleges, attend Evensong at King’s Chapel and learn about the historicity of the city. I liked it better than Oxford as a college town. I saw bicycles by the hundreds as men, women and children of all ages went by on both streets and sidewalks. The downtown area had shops for both tourists and the regulars and it was a fairly compact area which as a tourist, I appreciated as I tried not to get myself lost along the cobblestoned streets and little alleyways that take you from here to there. 

For those of you who have been faithfully keeping up with this blog as I've been traveling, much kudos and many thanks to you. Especially if you're not related to me! I'm currently in Ambleside, the Lake District of England, and nearly done with my trip--we fly out the 14th--but I may continue blogging to finish out my adventures since this blog is for myself as well as for all of you! But I will be home shortly which I'm very excited for. :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

::everything stripped away::

Image
She trembles. "Please don't", she whispers. So much has been taken from her already. Must this also be torn from her? "You can do it, you can do it", she mentally recites to herself. She's made it through many storms before but nothing like this. They were always by her side before. They were her foundation and her safety net to come back to. Now, it isn't like that. She has no place to go. No place to hide. She can feel herself splintering into a thousand pieces. Her world has been shattered and she is at a loss as to how to pick up the fragments. Rebuilding seems like a gigantic task and she wonders if she really has the strength to do it. She concentrates on one thing at a time, compartmentalizing to survive the pain that is part of every day. "Why? What happened? What now?" The questions perpetually swirl in her head. Some days she forgets what happened and you can hear her laughter and see her smile. Other days, something triggers her an...
Read more

:: is self-care selfish? ::

Image
Boundaries. It's a common word in psychology, in relationships, in the workplace. We toss it around as if boundaries are easy to put up and maintain. 'Just draw a boundary.' 'Make sure you have a work-life boundary.' 'Tell someone they crossed a boundary.' If you've ever tried having boundaries, you know it's not that simple. Boundaries can take a lifetime to learn. They can be rigid and they can be flexible. They can be temporary or for forever. They can be in every single area of life or only in a couple. They can be instituted by other people and by your own self. They can be respected and upheld and they can be broken and destroyed.  Can boundaries become selfish? Is my holding up or putting in boundaries around friends and family too much about me? What if I want it to be a certain way or I'd rather just hang out with these friends? Does saying no make me a bad person? What if I set up something a particular way and someone wants to change i...
Read more

fake it till you make it - adult edition

Image
Is it ever okay to fake it? Is "faking it" lying to people? If so, am I a terrible person every time I do it? These are moral questions I don't have answers to. Either I'm lying almost every day of my life or it's not truly a lie. We've all done it. We have all faked it till we made it, whether it's through a class, a day, a meeting, a season. It hurts, it's hard, it's not necessarily healthy but it is a regular occurrence. The funny thing is that pretending things are (mostly) okay usually works out in the end. I do still hold to the principles of honesty and integrity but I've also learned that sometimes you have to act like you can do it, pretend you feel it, or whatever it is, in order to do the good and needed things in life.  In college, I learned particular forms of faking it in regards to homework, relationships, extra-curriculars, existential and identity crises, and everything else in-between. And look, I made it! Out of college at le...
Read more