It’s the summer of 2021, and I have moved over three thousand miles away from my family to work in North Carolina for the summer before College. I remember how that summer stretched before me, daunting, and looming with a sudden independence. One night, surrounded by the chorus of late night crickets and the hum of cicadas, I wrote the following in my journal: I want my college experience to be chaotic and exciting. I want to have late nights, bleary eyes, homework turned in just in time. I want coffee stained books and heated debates about stupid topics, swearing in latin and greek, and feeling the vice like grip of words on my soul. I want to
run down the streets in the middle of the night, blaring my favorite songs, nights full of laughter with friends and a community who loves me just as much as I am sure I will love them. Boy, has that journal entry come true, sans the Greek and latin. It sounds maybe cliche to say that I have laughed till my belly ached, and cried with my best friends, but it's all true. From late night dance parties, early morning walks, and holding the subway doors so we could make it just in time, King’s and the people here have reached deep into my heart and made a home there.

This school is not easy, adjusting to New York is a hard task to us non-natives, the workload is demanding, and Professors do expect a lot from you. But, it is never without grace. For every daunting two thousand word paper, there is a professor willing to spend hours discussing it with you. For every Trader Joes run, there is a friend helping you lug groceries home. It has been a privilege to grow intellectually and spiritually right by my friends, working through every minute issue together. Community is one of our greatest strengths here at kings and I truly could not be more thankful for who it has helped me to become. King’s, my friends, and my professors have saved me more than they will ever know. I simply would not be where I am today without any of them.

I have had late nights, studying with my friends until we can no longer decipher words. I have had many many (and most likely many more) assignments turned in just in time, and I have lost count over all of the debates I have had, many over stupid things, but still more yet over some questions that have plagued me for years. My friends and I have most definitely run down the middle of the street at the WTC, midnight a fargone memory, and I have found love so deep and so profound here in this community. 

Thank you Kings, for everything you are and everything you have been. I can only hope and pray that we will all have the opportunity to create more memories here. And if not, to continue to use what we have learned at King’s to glorify God, and transform the world in our own little ways through Him.

With Love,

Leah Webber