Now that I am back in the States and have experienced family gatherings and American food, I am starting to spend more and more time reflecting on Rome and the encouragement and passion it gave me.
While abroad, my main goal was to embrace growth and change within myself and around me. I was able to experience new things, meet new people who were so much different than me, become friends with those people, and learn from them. My time abroad has enriched my my love for art, my love for people, my love for birds, and my love for traveling.
But mostly, while abroad I realized that identity isn’t steadfast; it’s not always the same. Throughout my four months I identified with different people, different opinions, different feelings. My identity changed vastly while abroad– for example I identified as more of an introvert, I needed more time alone. I was more adventurous– I was an explorer. Of course I still heavily identified with being a women, and in Italy there were many strong women surrounding me that encouraged me and showed me that women are strong and valuable in many different countries. Sometimes it is easy to feel that the United States is the biggest contester in the ‘human rights contest,’ but I think Italy was making strides too. My entire program was made up of all girls and one boy, so I was constantly surrounded by women I could easily identify with. I lived in a convent guest house where I showed my appreciation and love for an all women staff. Women working at Trinity, like Gaia and Angela and Professor Fossa, made me feel like I could accomplish anything! I also learned that Italians, despite our language barrier, are not very different from me. We identify as people first and foremost, and our cultural identities come after.
Most of all, my identity grew to a traveller, an explorer, an art historian, and so much more. These few days I have been back in the States, all I’ve been doing is rattling off facts about Michelangelo and Ancient Rome. When talking about my time abroad, I talk about the classes I took and the history I learned just as much as I talk about the traveling I did.
My time abroad showed me that the love I have for history is not just a hobby, but something I am so excited to commit my life to. I wouldn’t trade this time abroad for anything in the world! Grazie Rollins, and most of all grazie Roma.