I lived.

And so another year catapulted past, and all that remains is a mess of memories, an embarrassing number of candid photographs, and miscellaneous trinkets bearing immeasurable meaning. Since the minute I got home, I've just been napping away all the hours of sleep debt I accumulated throughout the year- the rest that I lost in favour of sweaty hugs with best friends and strangers at pulsing clubs, finishing off assignments as deadlines inched their way closer at a frightening pace, and deep conversations held at the the break of dawn of which we'd forget every word by the time the sun peeked out again. 

Perhaps it's time to backtrack through everything that happened in the span of 365 days. I waded through some of the most heart-wrenching sadness I've ever felt, trod through loneliness and confusion, hilarity and excitement, and experienced some of the most ecstatic moments of my life. If there is one thing that I have learned this year, it's that complete happiness is unattainable indefinitely.  But it is possible to encounter those flashes of pure bliss and I discovered them consistently. I have had, without a doubt in the world, the best year of my entire life, but you can only appreciate the sweetness if you know what bitterness tastes like. As Jonathan Safran Foer phrases it, "You can't protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness." I felt a lot of the emotions on the spectrum, and I think that is what helped me appreciate everything on a different level. 

So I lived, I lived, I lived. I moved to a new country on my own. I started living in a flat with 4 complete strangers. I had to start completely from scratch, take initiative and pave my own path. I made friends. I learned how to cook. I travelled to 10 different countries. I had a million other experiences wedged into the cracks of my life. Simply put, I lived. 

So here we go. It's time to recollect, retell, reevaluate and relive the best, the worst, and the insignificantly significant of my 2013/2014 in Edinburgh.

Home is where the heart is, and Edinburgh, you have stolen my heart since the minute I set foot on Scottish soil. I am lucky to be able to call you home.