In 120 days, I'll be flying over the ocean for the first time (and hopefully only the first of many such adventures ahead). It's true. In 4 short months, I will finally be on my way to England to get that first stamp in my passport.
I've been talking about taking this journey since I first fell in love with everything English at the ripe old age of 7. My Mom woke me up that warm July day in the wee hours of the morning so that together we could watch Princess Diana marry her Prince Charming and live happily ever after. OK, so the story didn't quite have the happy ending we imagined, but no matter, from that moment on in 1981, this dreamer wanted to visit Great Britain and see that magical land of history, pageantry and literature.
My quest to learn all I could about the fair isle of England began all those many moons ago. I researched everything I could about England, even doing a grade school research project on the island and memorizing a list of the monarchs in succession. I read the English classics, filling my head with passionate tales or moody masterpieces like Persuasion and Jane Eyre. I consumed British poetry, drawing life from the pen of great romantic poets such as Elizabeth Barret Browning or the stirring ballads of Alfred Noyes or Lord Alfred Tennyson. I reveled in the delicious vivid language of William Shakespeare, devouring each scene of his great works such as Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew. I heartily fell in love with British musicals, vicariously living life in song through Camelot and My Fair Lady.
And now it is nearly time for this voyage to begin... [sigh!]
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