When I was young, I thought Europe held all the answers. I had a good friend whose father, a photographer, had grown up in England and been all over the world. I would eat English food in her kitchen and look at the pictures of all the exquisite places her family had been: France, Greece, England, Spain. She had camp friends from Europe and I would click through their photos on Facebook in a sort of desperate-to-be-them frenzy. Gorgeous photos of weekend trips to Venice, anniversaries with high school boyfriends in front of the Eiffel Tower, casual hikes in Sweden and family beach trips to the Mediterranean sea. How could I compare to a life this extravagant? I thought if I just got to Europe that I'd find that girl inside me too, the well-travelled and extensively cultured one, the one who sometimes fumbled with her words because she couldn't remember the American term for it.
Now it is my turn. I am about to spend a semester in Florence. I'm most excited for the chance to see all the art - and I don't just mean the framed paintings hanging in museums, although I'm sure they'll be spectacular. I'm thinking more about the art I'll run into every time I leave my building. The statues and gardens and buildings, the architecture that holds the history of a culture so different from the one I'm used to here. I'm also excited for all that is unimaginable to me right now: different people, a different culture, a different language. A different landscape, different customs, different traditions. These are things that I can't visualize in my head. I have spent my entire life knowing the customs of only one culture, knowing only my own traditions, seeing the beautiful but limited sights that Massachusetts, the North Shore, and North Carolina have to offer. I can imagine it'll be slightly like the first time I visited New York City, but that isn't quite right. New York City was different and new, of course, but it also had everything I am already familiar with: McDonalds, The Cheesecake Factory, Forever 21, and my family.
This'll be the first time I take a step on my own. I visited Montreal, Canada with friends for a senior trip, but that isn't quite the same thing. Sure, it wasn't the United States, but it was also only one week. It was with kids I'd gone to school with for years. And we were all kept far away from the people who live day to day in Canada: we had access to rented-out clubs just for us Americans, we had designated bus tours. It was a great trip and I loved every minute, but I think most of us were ultimately more caught up in Canada's 18 and over alcohol policy than in any sort of history or culture we could find there.
I think about this quote I found recently: "to travel is to take a journey into yourself." That is what I am so excited for with this trip. I am excited for the chance to re-discover, or perhaps simply discover, myself as I am on my own when all familiarity falls away. To prepare for this trip, I read "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was innumerably helpful. I have lists of places to eat the best pizza and gelato, thanks to her book. But most importantly, Elizabeth spent her three months in Italy "in the pursuit of pleasure." She worked, and I do mean worked, every day to find ways to make her happy and fulfilled. She wrote about the beauty of sitting in a small Italian garden with a cup of coffee. She wrote about the importance of sitting and observing- not, as American's often do, sitting and watching TV... but sitting outside and watching Italians as they embark on their own pursuits of pleasure. And then taking tips and advice from them, the locals, who surely know what is truly good and what is only "tourist-good." I hope to spend my three months in Italy learning what it takes to become one of those well-travelled people I once envied, and to realize that a Facebook photo of me in the Colosseum does not equate to me understanding why the Colosseum is there in the first place.
I also advise my future self one thing: to wake up each morning with the thought "how will I find pleasure today?" and to go do it.
Oh, and to also do plenty of things that scare me to death. Because what's the opportunity to travel if not the opportunity to break down your personal fear boundaries?
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