UK: Can we rewind and freeze?
Have you ever had a moment when you thought to yourself: this is absolutely perfect?
Well I have and for me that moment happened on June 1, 2014 as the sun started to set on the beach at the Seven Sisters Cliffs.
Flat 29 headed to the Seven Sisters yesterday one last time as a group before we all either head home or start to travel again. Once again it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. We picnicked and explored (I tried to pet a sheep…. I failed). We hung off the edges of the cliff because we like to live a dangerously. The whole point of the trip this time was to make a bonfire and make s’mores for the Aussie and the German in the group who had never had them before. Once we had enough of hanging over the edge we climbed down to the beach to start collecting wood for our fire. We collected our materials and explored the beach further as we waited for the sun to begin to set. As we explored we all began to break off into little groups and I eventually ended up on my own walking among the rocks. I found a pretty large rock and decided to climb to the top so that I could sit and enjoy the view for a moment while I was alone. Although being alone always allows my mind to wander and as it wandered this time I began to realize how quickly my departure from Brighton is approaching (it’s Saturday by the way) and this is not where I wanted my mind to wander. And yet my mind took the first few steps down that path of sad realization and the tears began to flow. I had just had an amazing day with the friends that I have spent the last five months with and I couldn’t have asked for a better day. I cried for a few minutes then thinking I would be okay I made my way back to where we were setting up camp. (Spoiler alert: more tears are to come)
We made our little fire pit and fashioned seats out of wood and rocks from the beach. It was a bit rough going at first because we could not get the fire to catch for the life of us. But thanks to yours truly we got the fire blazing! And thanks to our fire master Gena the fire kept going for the rest of our time on the beach. And thanks to Yasmine and Gena’s friends fresh off the plane from American we broke out the marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey’s chocolate for the oh so tasty s’mores. Both Nathan (the Aussie) and Jule (the German) loved the s’mores, as did the rest of us!!
It was after the s’more eating that everything went a bit over the edge (see what I did there…over the edge…. because of the cliffs haha) emotionally speaking. We were all sitting around enjoying the fire listening to music when that feeling hit me. That feeling where in that one moment everything feels perfect, like the world could freeze right here in this moment and that would be quite alright. And that’s when it happened. I began to cry. I cried because the moment really was perfect: all of us together sharing our different cultures and enjoying the scenery and the company. I cried because these people that I only met in January have become more than just flat mates and more than just friends. We became our own little family. I cried because these have literally been the best five months of my life. I cried because I leave Brighton on Saturday. And I leave behind these people that have become part of my everyday life and some of them I don’t know when I will see them again.
People are malleable. More malleable than we realized, more than I realized until the other day. I came to Brighton as one version of myself and I am leaving a better version of myself and I owe that to the people that I spent this day with. I think it’s hard to realize how much we are shaped and formed by those we interact with on a daily basis especially when we are young. But I have noticed a change in myself over these last months and it’s a change that I like (and my mom likes so we know it’s good stuff 😉 ). I feel that I owe so much to the people that have made my experience in Brighton the best experience I could have ever asked for.
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