On returning to London
This is the first in a series of posts about my trip to London. Now that I’ve had time to process the experience, I’ll be writing about it for a bit. Be warned.
Photo by Jason. For more, follow his ever-growing London & Paris set on Flickr.
When I was fourteen my family scraped together enough cash to send me on the Stetson Children’s Choir’s Summer trip, part of which was spent in London. Visiting this city weeks before I started high school impacted me in a lot of ways; for one, seeing Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey convinced me to study English Lit. But more importantly, it was during this visit that I set a big goal for myself: when I grow up, I will travel. I resolved to get out of the small-minded town I was raised in, and the hot southern state I’d grown to hate.
After high school my only real ambition was to find a new place to live; I visited Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, New York City, Scotland, and finally Boston. These trips made it hard to have a normal full-time job and be a good student, but that was secondary in my mind. The equally irresponsible Jason and I moved about the country, armed with our 12″ PowerBook G4s and Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. At some point I learned I could be a freelance designer, which meant never asking permission to take a vacation. I dropped out of college, quit my job, and started building my portfolio.
So as you might imagine, my return to London was awesome for a lot of reasons. Being at FOWD to speak amongst personal heroes such as Jim Coudal and Molly Holzschlag was an honor. However, as we rushed through Kensington on the way to the speaker’s dinner, I realized I was living an even bigger personal victory. It was in London 10 years earlier that I swore I’d never keep a job I hated, or get married and pregnant at a young age, or stay in Florida for the rest of my life. Avoiding these potential road blocks to happiness well enough to return to that awe-inspiring city felt like a success in its own right.
[...] the thrill of returning to London and being invited to speak at FOWD, my primary emotion leading up to the talk was terror. The [...]
Hey, Love your site layout. Looks great.
This reminds me so much of me and my wife. We moved from Texas to Philadelphia a year and a half ago, so I could pursue my career in web design. I guess I went more the corporate, in-house route, but in a lot of ways I think it’s very similar. I think moving away from everything you know, love, and have grown up near, is vital to growing as a person, and a designer.
It’s very inspiring to read something like this; and congratulations on your recent speaking gig (I’m like - so jealous
Wish I made FOWD - but damn, how are we supposed to afford the ticket price alone?