Hello!

This is my blog, and I am going to update it as often as I can when I am in Oxford. I will try to post pictures and talk about some of the places I visit and activities I will be doing! I am so so so excited for this opportunity! Many of you have helped to make it happen and, I am so grateful. If you had asked me about going to Oxford this time last year I would have said: “oops, I still need to complete my application, but honestly I don’t think I’ll even get into the summer programme.”

Here’s the back story. I signed up originally to go for the Oxford summer programme with two of my good friends. That was in October of last year. I got an email in November that said; they had liked my application so much they wanted to offer me a place in the semester programme whenever I could do it. I’m pretty sure I cried for joy for at least a few hours.

You see, I have loved England ever since I was a very young girl thanks to my father for reading us stories like The Hobbit and E Nesbit’s The Railway Children and Five Children and It. The Chronicles of Narnia was one of the first book series I read on my own (after much convincing from my father). Because of The Lord of the Rings, I decided that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. English literature has shaped my entire life. The Harry Potter series and J.K. Rowling fueled my dream of becoming an author. I’ve always wanted to visit England and the UK, but it was just one of my many dreams that I never thought would actually happen because I never had the money.

When I was a sophomore in high school I had a great history teacher who told me that someone from my high school had gotten into Oxford. I told him it would be a dream for me to go there, and he encouraged me to follow that dream. Since then, I decided I wanted to study at Oxford if it was at all possible. When I found out from a friend in Freshman year that Asbury had a study abroad program in Oxford, I decided to try to make my dream a reality. Money was still very much an issue, but I felt like God was saying that this time my dream might just come true. I had a feeling the money would come in some how. I wasn’t going to let money deter me. And here I am, one more week until I leave, and with more money, from so many generous friends, than I had budgeted for the trip. I am so grateful that God has opened this door for me. And I am so excited to, as the Tangled line goes, “live my dream.”