Soon to be Titled

Some have noticed that this post is the first post in a long time. I am now State side and have yet to reflect on my year abroad in Canterbury, England.

Since being home I have been attempting to put in words a blog post that would best articulate my experience. I have not found the collection of words to do so until now. And even now, my words fall short though they pursue presentation.

I now understand and appreciate why authors choose to write fiction.

This statement might seem a bit odd given the content of this blog. Well, it is odd, but I have begun to understand through my journey and life overseas that a fictional story would present a truer reality and a more accurate essence of my experience. There would be no other way to convey the countless pub-crawls, rappers, French dinners, lectures, Switzerland trains, bottles of wine, McDonald adventures, Parisian nights, Clowes parties, tea times and the deep companionships I have had in England and Europe without creating, without writing a fictional tale, let alone an epic.

This may seem a bit much but I believe it to be true. I have been reading The Chronicles of Narnia amongst other books and have felt a kindred link to the author of these stories. Though these books are considered fiction for the sake of categorizing them, I believe C.S. Lewis and I have been in the same boat before, that is we have found the purpose of fiction to articulate the real. If I ever attempt to communicate this year abroad, I will have to write an epic. For now, I have been telling the people who ask that my experience was perfect.

I have travelled to the lands of Narnia, to the white city of Minus Tirith, the parallel universes of His Dark Materials and to the classrooms of Hogwarts…

How was my time? How was my journey?

My time was perfect. A dream. Simply magical. A life I would like living again. I could see me living there now.