The first week I was in Oxford, before most students had arrived, I met two of my classmates- Cameron and Sukai. It was a beautiful early autumn day, so we bought lunch at a sandwich shop and sat on a bench near St. Giles church, and talked about what might lie before us in this coming year we were about to share. We talked about our hopes and fears, and wondered aloud whether we'd still hang out when we had other friends...or whether hanging out on this bench would become a regular occurrence or not.
We decided that in any case, at the end of our time here, we should come back and have lunch together on the bench and reflect on the year.
As it turns out, the three of us never returned to the bench together for the remainder of the year, although we all thought of one another and that special day on the bench whenever we passed by it. Now as we prepare to leave Oxford in the next week, we all agreed we needed to take time to return to the bench as planned, and debrief. So yesterday, the three of us sat on the bench (the guys wrote me a card and bought my lunch and coffee- they are so sweet!) and discussed our years highs, lows, challenges, changes, growth, and treasured moments. It was a special moment itself, sharing these things on the bench where we first began to share life just shy of a year ago. I went that first time with acquaintances- I went this time with brothers.
