The first picture I took on my first trip to London was a horizontal shot of "Mind the Gap." Because I was a goddamn tourist. 

After I got off the tube at St. Pancras and onto Euston Road, I immediately felt like I was home. It was 2019, and I had never been to London before. But everything was familiar, in a way, including the ashy-smelling echos of the Industrial Revolution. (Kind of like the south side of Indianapolis.) It took less than five seconds to fall madly, irrevocably in love with a city 4,000 miles from home.

Being surrounded by centuries of history, art, architecture, and design was sobering. Here's the door where Henry VIII met Anne Boleyn. This is the Rosetta Stone, the real Albion Rose. This is Trafalgar Square, where 35,000 pigeons used to shit all over everything. And with more than 5,000 acres of green space, The Royal Parks are a big deal, too.

Each of London's Royal Parks are for "everyone now and in the future to explore, value and enjoy." I want to support that. To help continue their legacy, and to be a part of something larger than myself. That's because I believe everyone deserves access to good design, be it public art, parks, museum collections, architecture, plazas, bike infrastructure, etc. If you'd like to be part of that legacy, too, cool beans. Seriously and sincerely. I am absolutely humbled by your support, whether it's emotional, physical, metaphorical, monetary, or imaginary. 

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Thank you, Bridget, for inspiring me to run.

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