Just a few weeks ago I joined the Lenior Rhyne students in Florence for a day trip. Because I have been to Florence and my budget for the summer is tight, I chose to visit the Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace) and then take myself to lunch. I spent the rest of the day doing a lot of people watching, including watching other students from the US. I watched with curiosity as they shopped in H&M, stood in lines for museums, and talked about their travel plans. My first question was and always is: do these students know how lucky they are to be in Italy?! Well that brought me to a follow up question, and let me tell you, it was a moment of conviction...
You see I realized that I was struggling with some loneliness and confusion, questioning my return to Italy. The conviction hit me when I asked myself: Do you realize how lucky you are to be here?! Everyone I love most is thrilled I am here, and they have been the ones reminding me this is a wonderful opportunity for self discovery and rest. What a gift?! To be supported, and in this place.
This place is home for the next three months. It is time to rest in that fact, that OPPORTUNITY. It is an opportunity to leave my comfort zone and discover being present and connect with this community.
My desires for this summer:
1) listen.
2) connect.
3) learn.
4) run.
5) fundraise.
6) travel and see.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on those accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime" -Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (1869)
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. -Romans 12:2
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Returning to Italy
It was 5 years ago,
in 2009, that I began my blog as part of my requirements for my study abroad
experience here in Sansepolcro, Italy.
Little did I know that curiosity and a hope for rediscovery would bring
me back here 5 years later. I have been
note taking and journaling endless feelings about what it’s like to be back in
a place where I've been before, but one far from home in North Carolina.
It is hard not to
create expectations when you return somewhere but it has been a goal of mine to
let life happen. Although this small
Tuscan town hasn't changed too much, I have.
I am no longer student, and this creates an opportunity to be whatever I
want to be. I am still eager to learn
but with a new hope that I can be present.
So far I have learned that running helps, rom coms do not. I have realized that I am now more unsure of
my life's next steps than I was as a student 5 years ago, or even a graduate 2
years ago.
I am hoping to take
a hold of the truth that God is looking over me, and will give me strength to
overcome the obstacles I fear lie ahead.
The Lord will comfort me in my loneliness and protect me in my new
adventures traveling.
This is an
opportunity… to learn, and to grow. Each
day I will try to do just that.
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