Celebrity Guest Appearances!

One of the best parts about studying abroad for me...

has been meeting up with people I know from back home in these countries thousands of miles away.

My friend and fellow study abroader July on a pedal boat
on the Vltava River in Prague.

Usually, I find travel photos so corny. This has contributed to my lack of inspiration with my photography since I got arrived here-- it all ends up looking the same to me. And seeing people in front of a monument on instagram is visually appealing, sure, but played out and seemingly disingenuous. But when I have someone that I have pre-Prague (and know that I will have post-Prague) memories with I want to be sure that I get a photo together with them; taking quick little photos to commemorate these moments gives us something to look back upon.

With O-Money O-Problems and his friend Rollman in London (left) and Prague (right)

And as you can tell by the photos I am including in this post, we aren't posing in front of landmarks for all of social media to see how privileged we are, embarking on these travels. (And I'm not saying doing that is inherently better or worse than what I am doing, it's just not what I am doing). Instead, these rather ordinary snapshots serve as the gateway to memories that flood in. Memory is associative, so these photos do far more than show off where we are at and what we are doing. They help me remember the conversations, activities, and feeling of being there with a friend. These photos are for me (but I'm still sharing it with you because blog).

With someone I had not seen since high school, Genevieve, in Prague

The experience of meeting up with these friends was also heavily influenced by how long it had been since I had last seen them. In one case, I met up with someone that I had not really seen or spoken to since high school, and in a number of ways I found that I was reverting to my high school self. Being able to realize, acknowledge, and then free myself from that mentality is demonstrative of my growth since then, I believe.  In conversation with this person there was the added layer of trying to condense three years of transformative experience into a conversation-appropriate sized bite. Yes, there is a recency bias to what one chooses to share, but it did put into perspective how much that I, at the time, perceived as so dire and high-stakes about my college experience; these are all now distant afterthoughts now that I am after the fact. What one chooses to share also relates to the closeness they feel to their conversation partner, but big news is big news regardless.

Serving looks with June in Paris

Goofing around with Hope in London

Five years ago-- which, shockingly, was still my sophomore year of high school--, if you told me I would be meeting up in Central Europe with these people I was seeing everyday in high school back in the States, I might have believed you. I have always had faith in their abilities to do things on a global scale, but I would not have been able to possibly fathom how we, myself in particular, got there. Or how great it would feel to be surrounded by them once again. Thankful for you all.

Acting a fool with one of the fooliest of them all, Sara, in London.