Italian reflections

Well, my 3 months in Italy are up and I'm now off to the UK.  It has been a very full 3 months and I've learned a lot about myself and about other people.  I've made some important decisions about where my life is going and the kind of person I would like to be everyday.  I have successfully learned how to drive and curse in Italian, as well as being able to have conversations and understand everyone (even old people who speak dialect!)!

I know that I will be returning to Italy one day although I'm not sure in what context.  However, I will miss the friendliness of its people, the beauty of its cities, and the deliciousness of its cheese.  And although there are somethings about Italian culture that bother me, I look forward to maybe living here one day.

As far as life decisions, I've decided that IF I go to grad school, it will be for something along the lines of teaching second language.  I have thought hard about what I'm going to do after I graduate and, though my first priority and dream will always be performing, I feel that I would be happy teaching as well.  I enjoyed teaching Luca (most of the time) and though it could be difficult, I enjoyed the challenge and felt extremely proud at his improvement.  To know that I helped this boy make so much progress is an amazing thing for me and I derived a lot of satisfaction from it.  So who knows, maybe I'll be a teacher when I grow up.

I've also learned different things about myself.  I've always tended to be a people pleaser.  I'm lucky in the fact that I'm an adaptable person and I can easily make friends with just about any type of person.  However, I sometimes spread myself a little thin in that I almost always say yes to people without stopping and thinking about the important things that I need to do with myself.  My time here in Italy has taught me that  it's ok to say no sometimes, that it's ok to express my true feelings without giving way to what others need.  I feel that at times, I need to be more forceful about the things that I need to do without having to consult other people.  I have discovered that though I enjoy being there for other people and I like pleasing other people, I also enjoy the strange independent feeling that comes with doing things for myself. Not that I'm not already a pretty independent person (as proven by this whole trip) but I feel like I need to be more so when it comes to other people.   It will be interesting to put this into practice when I get back home... I might lose some friends that tend to be needy and clingy, but in the end, I think I'll meet the kind of people that I need to spend more time with.

Just some thoughts!

ALLOOOOORA:  Ciao bell'Italia!  Mi mancherai ma ci vediamo presto!