This past spring, I spent the semester in Oxford, England, and if I had to try and explain everything I learned—which honestly takes far more than a short blog post—it’s best said in the colors I saw everywhere I looked. The first lesson I learned was green. Green will always be synonymous with the emerald hue of the grass in Oxford, and learning how to push aside everyone’s expectations of what the semester would be for me and find my own way. Before I got there, I had a chorus of voices telling me where to go, what to see and just how amazing everything about it would be. Then I got there and quickly learned that there would be some things I’d just have to figure out for myself—no help, no expectations.
Things then moved from green to blue. Blue is the color of the Aegean in Greece, and blue is the color of flexibility. If there’s one thing that is crucial when traveling with others, it’s flexibility. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, and sometimes the people you’re with don’t want the same things as you, and you have to be willing to compromise. The bottom line is it’s crucial to do what is necessary to figure out how the people around you and yourself can have the best time possible.
With the tease of spring in Oxford, orange made its debut. Orange is the color of the lantana in Santorini, of the whimsical skyline of Florence. Orange is the hard and fast realization that everywhere I went and all the people I was with really matter. The streets that glowed orange at night led me down the road less traveled and taught me to look up, down, forward, and behind to view each situation from as many perspectives as possible. These people have shown me love and made trips to Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and many other cities truly wonderful. They are also some of the people who helped make Oxford feel like home. Pink is the color of spring finally arriving in Oxford, of the buildings in Zagreb, of sunsets in Tuscany.
Pink is the rose-colored glasses I donned at times because attitude is everything. I decided to see everything for good in the face of what might have gone wrong because there were so many things outside my control, but the way I chose to view each situation was not one of them. Now that I have returned, I must consciously tell myself every day that I need to be thankful for the memories I made, rather than thinking about how much I miss the browns, and yellows, purples, and reds of Oxford. Pink is the fact that I have returned home and although I am sad, being a little sad is okay, as long as I keep my rose-colored glasses a little longer to appreciate everything that awaits in the next chapter of my life.
