Since living in the UK, I’ve found myself re-examining parts of my upbringing that I never questioned before, especially my education. Not because it was “bad,” but because so many of the assumptions baked into it simply don’t survive contact with the wider world.

One of the first truly disorienting moments I had after moving to the UK was stepping into a car and realizing… everything felt backward. The driver’s seat was on the right side. The gear stick (in a manual, no less) was to my left. And perhaps most jarringly, I was expected to drive on the left side of the road. As an American, I grew up driving on the right like 70% of the world does. So, switching sides wasn’t just a mild adjustment—it was like suddenly being asked to e