Arrivederci!

Ecstatic, thankful, fortunate, optimistic, intrigued, anxious, nervous, terrified, sad. My feelings as I being a new chapter, La mia vita in Italia (my life in Italy), in my book of life. I’ve been telling myself for the longest time, “when I’m older I’m going to travel all over Europe, see the things I’ve only studied about in text books and have seen on television, the things I could only dream of seeing in real life.” Well, it’s finally happening! Grazie, mom and dad, without the both of you this wouldn’t be happening. But, (there’s always a ‘but’) with the overwhelming excitement I have with only a few weeks before I leave comes nervousness, sadness, and fright.

        

When I began the Interior Design program with the College of Human Sciences at Auburn and read about the Joseph S. Bruno in Italy Abroad Program, I immediately signed my name and sent the deposit. An experience of a lifetime is what both my parents and I thought. I had nothing holding me back, no boyfriend or dog, no future plans or commitments. In the past three years…my how that has changed. As I leave the states January 30^th, I leave a serious (or what I call serious) boyfriend of over 2 years, a 1 year old puppy, my parents, siblings, nieces, and the rest of my friends and family for 12 weeks to experience Italy and everywhere that falls in my path. Of course my mom is probably more nervous and terrified than I am about leaving what I know best and going someplace I know nothing about, but that’s how moms are. I’m sad to leave the people I love most with my only forms of communication email and Skype, but I can’t complain about 3 months when I think about my sister and her husband, being in the Navy, gone 2 years.

I want to come home in April with stories upon stories to tell my family and friends, hundreds of pictures to document where I have been, and a group of girls I can call my best friends.

Ciao!

Jamie