Ten years ago this week, I made a momentous journey. Little did I know at the time, but that trip would, in many ways, impact the journey my career would take over the coming decade and it would certainly shape and mould my personality into the person I am today.
It hardly feels like a whole decade again, but on the morning of Friday 14th August 2011, I arrived bleary-eyed at Heathrow airport with my family in tow. We’d been to a family wedding the day before in Norfolk and opted to drive overnight to the airport to avoid the inevitable London gridlock. It’s fair to say my parents tended to avoid the capital, especially my Dad who considered London to be his personal hell as far removed as it was from the great outdoors, nature and the countryside that he loved. His biggest peeve on that journey, as I recall, was the fact that even after we reached London we would have to drive almost the same distance again around the outside in order to reach Heathrow.
In any case, we made it to the airport without issue. This was an exciting day, my first time stepping foot on a plane, my first international flight. I don’t do things by half, as you might be able to tell. My first trip abroad was to be to the USA, six months away from my family studying a full semester at Minnesota State University, Moorhead.
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