The day has come.

As I once wrote on this very blog, while planning my leave of lovely Oxford,...everything must come and go, and now it's my turn to leave. I don't wanna get all melodramatic about this, because it's long, long overdue, but I'm happy and scared and excited and petrified. However, none of that matters now. So, here we go.

I can say that I've lived a very simple and easy life this year. It's been a year of solitude, punctuated with surprising bursts of great friendship and devout love. I've learned a lot about myself, internalized lessons and learned live a little more quietly. I've found beauty and comfort and so much worth in myself. When I left Oxford over a year ago, I was only just beginning to know myself, as a lone individual, as an adult, and as a woman. I was a bundle of flickering and unpredictable anxieties, and they'd spark up a wildfire at any time.

I'm glad that I can confidently say that I don't give a fuck anymore. I can only be myself. And not everyone has to love me, but I do feel, from the bottom of my heart, that as long as you're authentic and kind, no one can truly dislike you. I love who I am. Since I've found love in myself,  I can truly know love and feel love for others.

Love is in those secret, in-between moments, when you look over at that other person, during a movie, and you see that they're just smiling. You don't know why they smile. But because they are smiling and they are with you and look so happy, you have to smile too.