and i know that it's so cliche

i don't know why it's now that i'm missing london so much, that i'm looking at old pictures and longing, or looking at old quotes and laughing. i see a picture of the parking garage next to our flats and want to cry. i pore over images of the city lit up like a birthday cake and wonder how it is that i lived there for four months like it was nothing, walked down those streets like it was nothing, cherished every moment but never realized how much i'd still miss it, even a whole year after leaving it. i don't think i've ever grown to love a city so much; it wasn't love at first sight but after winding my way through its intricacies every day i just can't forget it, can't shake it off. i can't imagine not going back, but i can't imagine it ever being the same. but i guess that's the thing about london, as it is with every good city: it's alive, it never stays the same, it breathes - and even though the worn cobblestones remain and the old buildings still stand, there will always be something different about that place and maybe that's why i love it so much.

for months after i always wondered if i had made the right choice. should i have tried harder for rome, the first city i ever loved, the beauty, the food, the ancient-ness of it all? or australia which everyone seemed to love so much - the sweeping landscapes, the crazy nights, crazy travels? or spain or mexico with a language i knew but a totally different culture? i watched abroad friend groups get stronger and others fall apart, while my own group of 20 dwindled down to about 6. but even though a big part of london, for me, was the people i met there, in the end it's not about that, and it's not about missing out on something i could've gotten if i had studied abroad somewhere else. it's about the way i felt when i walked across blackfriars bridge in the sunshine. it's about standing on the balcony of the national gallery looking down at trafalgar square. it's about marveling at every item in sainsbury's and laughing at weird flavors of potato chips we wouldn't be able to find in the USA. it's about standing on that spot on the globe stage and hearing my voice echo around me. it's about the triumphant satisfaction i felt the first time i squeezed onto the tube in the nick of time, and the first time i navigated my way inside king's cross without having to look at the signs. it's about the very first time i ordered a drink at a pub, the way i wanted to cry before the first act ended in les miserables, the way my feet were numb after running all the way to school in a skirt and flats, the way i could walk down the streets of london at night and feel totally safe, like i was home.