Gratitude for my Global Experience & the Finale of my month in Firenze

Buongiorno!

Thanks for following me on my journey until the finale! We’ve made it to the end, and it’s truly bittersweet. These three weeks were not at all what I expected, but in the best way possible. I imagined I would venture out on my first long-term trip alone and return with a suitcase full of silly memories, but I came back with so much more.

As I prepared for my journey back, I reflected on the newfound independence and confidence I was returning with. Prepping for the full 24 hours of train rides to take (in the midst of a nationwide union transportation strike), a tax free claim to make on the placeholder phone I purchased after the pickpocketing, two flights to embark on, and a four hour layover with no cell service to sit through (due to my Italian number), all after dealing with food poisoning a mere few hours before I was to depart was a very telling experience. For someone who is very type A, a day such as this one often brings me a lot of anxiety and restlessness. But I had a new sense of faith in myself to be able to tackle hard situations on my own, which granted me peace as I journeyed back home to familiarity (and it was a success!).

However, even more surprising to me was my newfound awareness of my appreciation for my safe spaces. I have always been a very outgoing and adventurous person; a large factor of my final decision to come to Pitt was that it would be a new environment completely out of my comfort zone with an entirely new community I would have to find my footing in. So while I had some of my normal nerves going into this program, I was excited for what this adventure would bring me. While some of the greatest gifts that I left with were all of new things I was acquiring (relationships, memories, perspectives, etc), I found myself having more moments when I missed my room in my old South Oakland house, my old routine, and my good-old friends & family than I thought I would.

Furthermore, this opportunity has allowed me to begin viewing food in a new capacity. I don’t often think of food in a gendered lens, or how our relationship with the act of dining is culturally influenced, but this Food Studies program really opened my eyes to this reality. Especially in college, eating is more often merely the action of putting food in your mouth, rather than the embodied experience of dining that appeals to all of our senses. Sometimes in the hurried nature of my schedule it feels like a chore, and it was interesting to learn how far our modern society and new technologies have caused a clear veering from our original experiences and relationship with food. I hope to use what I learned both within and outside the walls of our Italian classroom to inform my decisions about food from here on out.

So as I reflect on my passion to experience more of the world, I am extra grateful for the people and places around me that feel like home. I have a new appreciation for the little things, and the big things I often take for granted. Grazie mille Firenze, for being a city that brought me new highs and lows, memories and friends, and gratitude for the life I’ve been ever so blessed to live.