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Over a meal at Haidilao with Lao Da, the author sees the energy and curiosity of new students and remembers his own excitement on first arriving in the UK: places to explore, people to meet and several nights of clubbing a week. Now everyone has a life of their own, and gatherings feel quieter. The friendships have not changed, but the stage when everything felt new has passed. Looking back, he realises that days he once took for granted are already years behind him.

AI-generated digest · reviewed by the author A quick orientation to the essay’s central ideas

It’s the start of another academic year.

A few days ago, I went to Haidilao with Lao Da. It was packed. I looked around and said that most of the people there were probably new students. These days, I can almost tell at a glance who has just arrived in London. It’s written all over their faces: that energy and curiosity, that sense of anticipation about everything in an unfamiliar country.

Come to think of it, we were probably much the same a few years ago.

When I first came to the UK, every day seemed full of things to do, places to go and people to meet. In my first year, I could even go clubbing several times a week, as if I never got tired and the novelty would never wear off.

These days, it’s hard to summon that same enthusiasm. Everyone has their own things to do, their own lives to get on with. We still meet for a meal, a drink, some tea and a chat, but it all feels a little quieter. It’s not that the friendships have changed. It just feels as though we’ve moved past the stage when everything was new and we wanted to experience it all together.

AI-generated illustration of friends around a wooden table by a window, with a teapot and steaming cups, overlooking a London street glowing with warm lights at dusk.
AI-generated illustration: lives of our own, and time now and then for a meal, some tea and a chat.

Looking at those new students, I sometimes think how strange time is. The days we once took for granted turn out, when we look back, to have been years ago.

Ah, I’m getting old.