“Our life is made up of time. Our days are measured in hours, our pay measured by those hours, our knowledge is measured by years. […] And yet time eventually runs out and you wonder in your heart of hearts if those seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and decades were being spent the best way they possibly could.”
― Cecelia Ahern
It’s been nearly 6 months since I waved goodbye to Vancouver for a year abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland. And as I sit down to sort through photos and notes of my travels here, I can’t help but think about how much has happened and changed in this time: my grandma in China passed away in January; friends back home have been working, graduated or moved to new cities; I’ve made friends here, spoken with strangers, said goodbye to others, and journeyed to dozens of cities and regions in England and Scotland.
Out of all the journeys I’ve taken, there are several that stand out as especially inspiring and life-changing. My first trip to the Highlands is one of them, as this was the first overnight trip I took with friends in Scotland. To document my trip, I decided to experiment in another medium and create a video montage. The video features some of the places I visited on the trip last winter.
Full disclosure: I took this trip as a guide of the Edinburgh University International Student Centre, a non-profit organization that organizes social activities for international students. As a volunteer, I was involved in trip planning and received a discount for this trip. The Highlands trip was organized in collaboration with Haggis Adventures, a coach tour company. All opinions here are my own.
