To me this photo represents what “home” meant to me while I was abroad. I had the benefit of having my own lodgings while in London, which I feel rooted my experience deeper to the place. I was not a guest in someone’s home. It was my flat. I was living in the city, not a visitor. This tube stop took me to the two places that were really home for me: my tiny little studio flat and LAMDA where I was studying. After a time it was a comfort at the end of the day to return to this familiar place, to see the sign and know that this is your stop––this is where home is. It’s amazing that in so short a time one can become so connected to a place that coming back to it everyday feels natural.
I took this photo the day before I was leaving to go back home to the states, because a friend of mine who had already left for home and I both wanted to have a picture of the sign. The sense of nostalgia was starting to creep into my thoughts that these moments were going to be the last of this experience and that I was about to walk away from these places that had been my homes for those months in London. I still get some pangs of nostalgia remembering the great experiences that I had there––going to class, spending time hanging out with people at a friends house that lived just up the street, and just coming home––but they are not as strong as when I took the picture. Especially, when I realized that someday I may have the chance to go back and remember what it was like when I was there.