The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk #London for Free #St James's Park

A Saturday afternoon couldn't be any more calming, sitting under the canopy of a 100 year old Scarlet Oak Tree with a sandwich and a hot coffee. I called home to speak to my family and they asked why I was calling them from a park sitting in the cold when I could have been in the comfort of my cosy room. I laughed agreeing that my room was indeed warmer but the charm of London wasn't in there, it was in a nippy winter with a warm coffee swathed by the rich history of a place that was home to the much loved, Christina Rossetti.

 “Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by.” -Christina Rossetti.

I was homesick and lonely as most international students get during festive breaks, I quietly observed the pelicans while they moved around gracefully ruffling their feathers. A pelican can live up to 54 years in captivity but only 25 years in the wild. Their food is provided for, there are no predators, there is no interspecies fight for matting rights, and they are cared for. Seems like a good life…

A year back my life was similar to a royal pelican. I was an overprotected child.

“I stood surrounded by everything, but in reality, I had very little.” ― Jennifer Lauren's  

Today after months of living, studying and working independently in London. I realise that nothing can be more rewarding and liberating than finding ones independence. Truly being free is to expect and depend on nothing and no one. Freedom isn’t given, but claimed by a courageous heart that desires more than a safe life.

The tragic irony of life…. A majestic bird that breeds in a royal park is still a prisoner in all his supremacy. 


Trip sponsored by London Universities International Partnership #LUIP