by Kylee Lookabaugh | Fall 2023 |
The first thing that struck me about Oxford was just how wrong I was about what life here would be like. The first thing I was wrong about was what Oxford would look like. A simple thing, but I still recall being shocked to silence as I soaked in every ancient church along the mossy cobblestone roads. I thought Oxford students would be a different kind of beast, cut from a different cloth and people I could never hope to connect with, let alone be friends with. I thought our GLST class would be forgettable, rather than a class I would find myself meditating on and talking about with friends. I thought that to have a worthwhile trip, I needed to log every moment and visit every country on the continent, or I’d waste my time and money. Again and again, Oxford proved me wrong.
My time at Oxford challenged me to function as an adult in a brand-new world. The first significant challenge I faced was a surprise: groceries. As I navigated the ins and outs of Tesco and learned the British names for all my favorite foods, I found myself severely protein deficient as I adapted to a new life of walking 5 miles a day minimum. There was one day, in particular, very early in the semester, when my roommates and I were beginning to crack as the anxiety and stress sank in. We didn’t know what to buy or how to adjust to the fact that food expired so much more quickly here. We still put our eggs in the fridge and watched more than one loaf of bread go green before things started to get better. Quicker than we imagined, we began to sink into the culture and not only handle the changes we faced but thrive as (temporary) Oxford residents. This same theme of sinking into the culture spread beyond groceries, but my ability to connect with people and the culture all grew with time, and before long, I was more confident and social than I’d ever been. I found myself delighting in the company of the Quakers and met many Oxford students who proved to be people just like me in more ways than I imagined. I spent every Tuesday with the Quakers in meditation, and on Sundays, I was at St. Aldates working with the kids ministry and handing out biscuits to 3-year-olds. I built amiable relationships with the volunteers there, and we bickered about what a biscuit should be, good-naturedly, of course.
The intentionality and care with which the Oxford house treated one another developed relationships that I truly hope to hold onto for the rest of my life. In our time together, we grew close, crying together, laughing together, and taking care of one another when we were sick. We lived in our own little world here at the Oxford house and protected and cared for one another when we went to face the big, beautiful one beyond the doors. The confidence and practical life skills I learned in my time at Oxford will benefit me greatly as I return to America a more confident, capable, and cultured woman, but most of all, the relationships I had the pleasure of being involved in have changed me for the better, making me more confident, more kind and more bold than ever before.
