From London to New York: my experience as an exchange student at Columbia University.

My introduction to New York was not exactly the smoothest. I had visited the city before on a family vacation in 2019, and while marveling at the billboards in Times Square (typical, I know), I decided I wanted to live here one day. I never imagined, though, that the journey would be anything less than straightforward. The night before my flight from London, Heathrow to New York, JFK, my flight was cancelled! Instead, me and my parents had to take an indirect route through North Carolina, delaying our arrival in New York, which had been planned for an early start so we could get settled, find our bearings, and enjoy the city before I moved in. Despite this inconvenience, we pushed on. 

The flight itself was long and turbulent. Due to weather conditions, our plane circled over Philadelphia for nearly 40 minutes before we finally landed. Except, we had landed in the wrong airport. The communication between the airports and flight crew was poor, leaving us passengers completely confused: men were shouting, and babies were crying. People started to deboard the flight, even though we had been told we would be flown back to the correct airport. After that, we took another five minute flight to our destination. Eventually, we made it to our hotel, a whole 12 hours later than we had wanted. In the morning, I made it to campus and one of the very first things I had successfully managed to do was lock myself in the restroom in my building and have to be drilled out by my superintendent. 

One of my first individual activities when I arrived in to New York, I think even my first day, was a sunset boat ride, arranged by NSOP. I was talking with a girl, who would unknowingly become one of my best friends here at Columbia. We were passing by the Statue of Liberty and were in absolute awe at the view and were so hopeful for our future year at Columbia. “If this is our just our first day here, imagine how great this year will be—it is only going to go up from here,” we said. A few nights later we witnessed a woman, clearly in distress and seemingly intoxicated, screaming and begging for the pain to stop. It was raw, loud, and deeply unsettling. As Londoners, we were no strangers to city chaos, but this felt different. More visceral. More ignored. The indifference of the passengers around her—the blank stares, the silence, the practiced avoidance. Sure, we had heard stories, but witnessing it almost brought me and my friends to tears. 

As for the people of New York, I will not same much in order to stop myself from ranting, but I truly think New Yorkers make the Parisians look kind. I would admittedly consider myself to be quite a sensitive person, but I have never been brought to tears by any service worker before. This was true at least, before I came to New York. At the same time, some of the most wonderful and kind people I have met while at Columbia, have been from New York.

While I am writing not as positively as my younger self would have ever imagined, it is undeniable that I love and adore Columbia and it is a place I have come to deeply cherish. For me, Columbia, despite the many political challenges, stands out as one of the greatest environments I have ever experienced. I particularly love the quiet grandeur of Butler Library standing watch over the campus, the iconic Low steps that become a gathering place for everything from protest to poetry, and the trees that now, in spring, are bursting into bloom. But I guess it is easy to find the campus of Columbia beautiful when my own home campus has a graveyard in its centre. 

The sense of community here at Columbia University is also something I have ever experienced to this extent before. Everyone is busy, everyone is juggling a million things, but there is still this shared sense of tradition and pride that ties people together. I will miss attending the school games, and the yearly and traditional events and even just bumping into people in libraries and dining halls and getting lost in conversation for hours. 

The classes and professors at Columbia have also been a major highlight of my time here. I have been lucky enough to learn from some of the most passionate, thoughtful, and genuinely caring professors I have ever encountered. I truly feel as though my understanding of the world, both academically and personally, has expanded tenfold. Today was my last business and politics class and I could feel the tears brewing. I will truly miss it here.  

It is true that adjusting to an entirely new city and country after spending over 20 years in one, is incredibly hard and I did not realise just how hard being away from all of my family and all of my friends would be. But studying at Columbia, has given me some of the greatest life lessons I could have ever learned—it has boosted my confidence in myself and my own abilities, and it will be a year that I am forever be grateful for. In just a few weeks, when I board my flight back to the true greatest city in the world—London—there will no doubt be tears of joy. But also, tears of sadness for all I am leaving behind at Columbia and in New York.

New York City skyline via Bwarchives