I knew when I first started thinking about going to study in
Italy that I wanted to do a better job of journaling than the last time I went
to Europe….so basically I want to keep any sort of record past the third day of
the trip…and I also know that I won’t necessarily be able to call my family for
hours on end, to tell them about all of my adventures…that’s where the idea for
a blog came…simply to keep a journal, and to let people back home know what I
am up to…. and well, to allow my dad to live our dream vicariously through me…I also know that in order for me
to stick with this past the third day, I need there to be something about it
that is interesting, something past saying, “so today I went to class, and took
the metro, and oh ya, ate delicious food….again”…it clicked while watching Eat,
Pray, Love (you know that movie that is literally every travel/eating junkie’s
dream, where she picks up and lives in magical places and learns about life for
a year? ya that one) there is a meal scene, where Liz and her new friends sit
talking about how everywhere, everything, and everyone has a word….not
necessarily an adjective…just a word….she could describe herself as wife, traveler, writer, but she was still in search
of her word, one that said what she
was, not what she did…I found myself thinking about what my word would be, but
like Liz, I could only think of student, survivor, traveler…but again that’s
what I do or have done, not who I am….and thus the path for my blog was
created, through the course of my semester abroad in Torino, I will journal
here, each post will have its own word, phrase, or even name in Italian…a way
for me to give each day or adventure its own meaning…and so today, as I create
this…I mentally search for the perfect translated word to start things
off…creating, future, traveling, adventure, prologue….nothing makes sense, so I
went back to the where the idea began, and found it…what becomes Liz’s word, is
my first….attraversiamo…”let’s cross
over”…..time to cross over, to become the brave, world traveler I’ve always
dreamt of being….in six months time, ill be off…and although it is one of the
most daunting endeavors of my life this far, I am more excited than words can
describe….As Liz so geniusly discovers, when traveling, you have to put your
faith in the Physics of the Quest…it’s a force in nature as governed by law, as
real as the force of gravity and it allows you to know that you will find
meaning…it says, “if you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar
and comforting, and set out on at truth seeking journey, and if you regard
everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and everyone you meet
as a teacher; and if you are ready, most of all, to face and forgive some very
difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from
you”… so here I go,
leaving the comfort of friends, family, country, heck even
language…to do something I only ever thought I’d dream of…to learn and eat and
pray and laugh and perhaps, love and live in Italy…to prove to myself that I
can do it…to see places most only dream of….even if it costs me every last
penny I hold to my name and then some….i will come back wealthier than ive ever
been…for as they say traveling is the only thing you spend money for that makes
you richer….so as I counting down the days until I leave…. I could never be more excited…its time….attraversiamo….
