Pursuing the new and being amazed like it's our first time

I should have said yes.

After growing up in the most homogeneous city there is, living in London for a while was like losing my virginity everyday. Every Monday showed me something different and there was no ordinary Wednesday. I was constantly reborn.

I come from a place where there are no seasons. None at all. You'd think that a year of summer is a dream. It isn't. Your life becomes a series of undistinguished days. You look at your window and nothing ever changes, time just won't flow. It affects you. Or at least it affected me.

I had to leave. I'd lived 17 years in a place I loved but I was still stuck. I needed to be bewildered. So farewell friends, family and girlfriend.

Then I studied in London for a while. I've never felt more global and connected. Suddenly I was a much broader person. I could go to an Ethiopian restauraunt, chat with a Bengali, shop at a Japanese market, live in a Polish neighbourhood and find out first-hand how much the Yorùbá culture influenced my own. And I did all that.

I was so dazzled by how many things there were to learn I resented home for a while. Naively I felt like my city stole from me everything London was offering. The world was, indeed, bigger than my backyard and I blamed my hometown for my own lack of experience. And I made London my muse.

It was too much, you see? I loved how the seasons came and went. I didn't mind the rain, not at all. It rained a lot at home anyway. I smirked when the Brits were overwhelmed when the sun came out. I noticed for the first time that leaves actually fall during autumn ("like an Instagram filter!"), I decided that springtime has the perfect weather and I won't ever forget my first snowstorm. I travelled further north to see more of it because I like my winters hardcore.

I felt I was in the center of the world, I felt like I'd experienced it all.

And when I was starting to feel almost too confident, this girl from my English class invites me for coffee. She wasn't just any girl, she was A Major Girl. She was Iranian and slightly older than me. Way out of my league. Great hair, great lips and the most beautiful green eyes. I had a massive crush on her since day 1. She was so mysterious, so different. So foreign.

I was, however, a shy teenager and I said no. But I was truly amazed. There's so much to live and experience when you embrace the uncertainty of travelling. And I want to keep pursuing this. I need to be amazed, there's no going back now.

I should have said yes.