New Beginnings
Every great story starts with an equally great beginning. Well, this beginning might not be exaclty exciting or thrilling but surely is necessary.
My mom always tells me: "When you've been living in the dirt for so long you get used to the fetor"
I couldn't agree with that statement more, and i am fortunate enough to say that during my short but tremendously eventful life I have been able to experience what’s outside of the dirt bubble in which I am currently in; and I must say that coming back made me realize how much it truly stinks.
That was probably confusing, my apologies. Let's commence from yet another beggining.
I was 8 years old when my dad announced my family that we were going to move to Egypt for one year. Undoubtly i was enthusiastic, i had already moved a couple times beforehand, but it had always been within the borders of Itlay, so that represented a completely new reality for me. It signified a new adventure, a new beginning. Needless to say it was one of the best years of my life, comprising mainly of sun, beach, travel and overall meeting new people all completely different form one another and with each their own peculiarities. Now that i look back at it i realize that it was that year that sparked everything for me; i remember my 9 year old self thinking: so Italy isn’t all there is. It was then that the hunger inside of me started growing.
It wasn't no ordinary hunger either, not one that can be fixed with a large pizza or a plate of food, it was beyond that. Inside of me something was stirring up and i was beginning to feel as if all i truly wanted form life was to explore the world and live as a citizen of the globe rather than of some random small town.
After that unforgettable year i came back to Italy with a much more open mind, thanks to all the different cultures i had expericend while away; infact, as i looked at my peers i almost felt like an alien. Don’t get me wrong here, i was not a little girl with a superiority complex, nor am i know as i am writing this, i simply just realized that while most of my classmates cared only about buying a phone or experimentig with glitter lipgloss i was slowly closing myself into some sort of shell made of reading, writing and wanderlust (was i transforming into a turtle perhaps?). Those were the things which, apart from the continuous support from my famly and a couple of noteworthy other people, actually kept me going and kept the hunger inside of me growing.
A few years passed i turned eleven, finding myself right at the beginning of what i like to call my awkward phase, filled with hello kitty and hot pink nailpolish on my chewed nails. That's when my dad was sent to belgium for 4 years. That changed everything. Of course, just like we had always done, my mother and i, together with my still newborn sister, followed him. There my experiences ranged from traveling, to meeting new people to trying new things that i am so lucky to hold in my memmory and that i will forever carry in my heart. When i sadly had to come back to the "dirt bubble" i felt incredibly alone and left out. There i was, a 15 yrs old girl who, based on what she had acquired and had the privilige to have taken part in, already planned her life out and kept thinking about a way to escape from the reality she was now constricted in. I found myself imprisioned in a tiny city where the average person isnt hungry for knowledge, or culture or something different, but is content doing the same exact things every weekend with the same exact people in the same exact place, over and over and over and over ... Monotony is my worst fear and enemy.
There is a possibility that i was going slightly mad, but as time passed i started getting more and more obsessed with the idea of escaping, constantly thinking that the life in this tiny town couldn't possibly be “it”.
Finally, an opportunity sparked right in front of my eyes, something that would have allowed me to elope the monotony i had found myself in. With the Rotary Youth Exchange i envison myself starting a completely new chapter in my life, filled with adventures and which will hopefully finallly fulfill my hunger.
So here i am now, waiting to leave for the United States, where i will be spending 10 months of my life, interacting with extremely different cultures from my own, voyaging into unfamiliar places and hopefully meeting like minded people.
From Mogliano Veneto to Washington State, this is where it begins.
April 28, 2015
My mom always tells me: "When you've been living in the dirt for so long you get used to the fetor"
I couldn't agree with that statement more, and i am fortunate enough to say that during my short but tremendously eventful life I have been able to experience what’s outside of the dirt bubble in which I am currently in; and I must say that coming back made me realize how much it truly stinks.
That was probably confusing, my apologies. Let's commence from yet another beggining.
I was 8 years old when my dad announced my family that we were going to move to Egypt for one year. Undoubtly i was enthusiastic, i had already moved a couple times beforehand, but it had always been within the borders of Itlay, so that represented a completely new reality for me. It signified a new adventure, a new beginning. Needless to say it was one of the best years of my life, comprising mainly of sun, beach, travel and overall meeting new people all completely different form one another and with each their own peculiarities. Now that i look back at it i realize that it was that year that sparked everything for me; i remember my 9 year old self thinking: so Italy isn’t all there is. It was then that the hunger inside of me started growing.
It wasn't no ordinary hunger either, not one that can be fixed with a large pizza or a plate of food, it was beyond that. Inside of me something was stirring up and i was beginning to feel as if all i truly wanted form life was to explore the world and live as a citizen of the globe rather than of some random small town.
After that unforgettable year i came back to Italy with a much more open mind, thanks to all the different cultures i had expericend while away; infact, as i looked at my peers i almost felt like an alien. Don’t get me wrong here, i was not a little girl with a superiority complex, nor am i know as i am writing this, i simply just realized that while most of my classmates cared only about buying a phone or experimentig with glitter lipgloss i was slowly closing myself into some sort of shell made of reading, writing and wanderlust (was i transforming into a turtle perhaps?). Those were the things which, apart from the continuous support from my famly and a couple of noteworthy other people, actually kept me going and kept the hunger inside of me growing.
A few years passed i turned eleven, finding myself right at the beginning of what i like to call my awkward phase, filled with hello kitty and hot pink nailpolish on my chewed nails. That's when my dad was sent to belgium for 4 years. That changed everything. Of course, just like we had always done, my mother and i, together with my still newborn sister, followed him. There my experiences ranged from traveling, to meeting new people to trying new things that i am so lucky to hold in my memmory and that i will forever carry in my heart. When i sadly had to come back to the "dirt bubble" i felt incredibly alone and left out. There i was, a 15 yrs old girl who, based on what she had acquired and had the privilige to have taken part in, already planned her life out and kept thinking about a way to escape from the reality she was now constricted in. I found myself imprisioned in a tiny city where the average person isnt hungry for knowledge, or culture or something different, but is content doing the same exact things every weekend with the same exact people in the same exact place, over and over and over and over ... Monotony is my worst fear and enemy.
There is a possibility that i was going slightly mad, but as time passed i started getting more and more obsessed with the idea of escaping, constantly thinking that the life in this tiny town couldn't possibly be “it”.
Finally, an opportunity sparked right in front of my eyes, something that would have allowed me to elope the monotony i had found myself in. With the Rotary Youth Exchange i envison myself starting a completely new chapter in my life, filled with adventures and which will hopefully finallly fulfill my hunger.
So here i am now, waiting to leave for the United States, where i will be spending 10 months of my life, interacting with extremely different cultures from my own, voyaging into unfamiliar places and hopefully meeting like minded people.
From Mogliano Veneto to Washington State, this is where it begins.
April 28, 2015