When I was in high school I had this awesome friend (we’ll call her H) and she was the coolest person I ever knew. When she graduated high school, rather than going straight to college like every other person we, she took a gap year and went to England. I knew I wanted to travel because of her. I even begged my parents to let me take a gap year, too, but they weren’t having it. Last weekend, I met up with H in south London where she has lived for the last three years. We talked about politics, friends and philosophy. It was as if it had not been three years at all. But this experience reminded me that no matter where I go in the world I will always have a friend in some part of it. That is the beauty of studying abroad – you meet so many people and you have old and new friends that you can always stay with. Traveling helps make the world a little smaller.