This time last year I was stressing about pretty much everything. A-Levels, Coursework, University and everything else Year 13 involves. Never, ever, did I think that a year later I would be in New York City both alone and for three months.
As someone who had everything planned out and having never handed in a piece of work late, the idea of a gap year was daunting.
To be not in full time education for a year was one thing, let alone seeing everyone I knew go off to university and make new friends and learn new things. It took two long and painful weeks of deciding what to do and while this year hasn’t been free of disappointment and lows, it will be an experience that I will always be grateful for.
I was never going to be someone back-packing around South East Asia but I was sure I wanted to go somewhere out of the London bubble. While New York might be the most similar I could possibly try, being a 7 hour flight away was totally out of my comfort zone. However, I will never get bored of talking about ‘when I lived in New York for three months’ and I am going to leave knowing a city more than a tourist ever could.
I’m not oblivious to the fact that there’s going to be as many highs as there are lows over the next few months, but my resilience has been pretty well trained over years of school and a variety of disappointments (not to sound melodramatic!)
I hope this blog is going to be a glimpse of this new life and something that I will look back on with pride. I have never been one to journal so for me this is the next best thing that will help me cherish all that I will experience and learn.
Cressie’s adventures 