Well, there ya have it folks.

It’s our final night here in the city of London. I am finding that 10 days was the perfect amount of time to spend here, for me at least. Yesterday I would’ve said that I wasn’t ready to leave, but now I am.

Upon leaving for this trip, I had been in San Fran for 5 days and then home for a few and then I was off and flying again. You could say I am certainly ready to relax at home. This summer has already been one of the busiest yet, but I love it. Reflecting on this study abroad trip, I am so, so grateful for the experience.

I think there is slight a divide between students in our major who commute and those who live on campus. I did live on campus, but I was the only one who lived on east campus out of my whole class who lived on south. I definitely felt like that distanced me from those students as well, which was really difficult for me. They all became close from living in the LLC together when I ended up living on a business student floor on the other side of the city. Most of my closest friends are now business majors, not that that was a bad thing, but it took away from the relationships I feel like I could’ve made stronger if I was there all the time. Living on east campus drew me away from south campus which I purposely chose to do because, at the end of the day I wanted to separate myself from where I spent so many hours in class. That just works better for me.

This trip though, brought those from all locations together. I am so happy to say I can walk away from this experience with 15 close friends, the professors included. My relationships grew stronger by the day, and the older I get, the more that matters to me. I would say that I am a pretty shy person upfront, but I like to think once I’m warmed up, that part of me subsides.

I will never forget London by Design, and I hope to make it back here one day, who knows, maybe one of the connections I made at the hackathon will convince me to get on out here for work.

Aside from the pretty gloomy weather, this trip was hands down amazing, and I feel as though I’ve grown as a student, designer, and friend. Thank you UML for making all this possible.

Peace, and love.

-Nina