Twenty Years (Or: How on earth did that happen?!)

Almost exactly twenty years ago I started university.

As I say ... how on earth did that happen?! Not the starting university. That was probably a relatively normal thing to do as a nineteen year old. But that it was twenty years, more than half my life ago, seems hard to believe somehow.

And yet in other ways, life now feels world's away from life then. Of course, I can identify parts of the nineteen year old me in the person I still am ... but I can also look back and recognise how far I have travelled (literally, but mostly metaphorically) since those days. I have, in parts at least, matured in the intervening years. I have been enriched by so many different encounters and experiences. 

I really loved my time at university. I have so many very, very happy memories of those days. Looking back with such fond nostalgia on my own early days in Lancaster; I really feel for those starting out on their higher education journeys in this year's very different, very challenging circumstances.

I met some truly wonderful people, a number of whom I am still privileged to call my friends: I still refer to those I lived with in my first and second year collectively "my housemates" much to the amusement of those around me who know it is a very long time since we lived together. 

Lancaster is a beautiful place (something I possibly didn't appreciate as much as I should have done at the time) and the university campus was a wonderful environment in which to spread my wings as I approached something vaguely resembling adulthood.

So much of what I learned there: both inside the lecture theatres and, undoubtedly more significantly, outside them; has played an important part in creating the person I am today.

And yet, despite the very genuine fondness with which I look back on those highly formative years and the people and experiences there which shaped me ... I wouldn't choose to go back. I know it is a privilege not to hark back to richer, happier times. It is not in any way an indication of anything lacking in those amazing experiences: rather it is a reflection that life has continued to improve, that life now is richer and fuller than ever. 

The last few months aside, which I'm still hoping is a temporary aberration, my life continues to be filled with many amazing people who deeply enrich my life. 

Birmingham, in its own unique way is also a beautiful place and a wonderful environment in which to spread my wings still further. 

So much of what I am still learning continues to help me to grow into the person I am still in the process of becoming.

So this week I am looking back: I am remembering and celebrating four amazing, formative years years and giving thanks for all those I shared them with. But I am doing so in the context of looking forward, trusting that there is much more that is amazing and formative still to come.