After a couple days of fun and exploring Rome, I was ready and excited to be a student in Italy! So, I did what most people do right before a big day: I set my alarms, allowing myself a 30 minute buffer zone for any mishaps that might take place when you’re, you know, starting school in an entirely different continent. Of course, my alarms went off and I started getting ready to walk a simple 20 minutes to school. I was especially excited as I had heard the walk was beautiful and provided a “different and more unique sense of Rome” than the Trastevere neighborhood in which I live. 11 minutes into my walk, Google Maps is telling me to turn left, so I look left and there is this gigantic set of stairs to which I don’t see an end. “Reroute me. Reroute me. Reroute me, Google Maps!” I demanded. But nope, that was the way. It was dreadful, but I did it. I made it to the top of those 230 horrid stairs and feeling victorious, I was ready to arrive at school. Of course, that was not the end, however, Instead, I faced another large set of stairs and my victorious self immediately died. With bullets of sweat running down my face, no food in my stomach, and Google Maps deciding to malfunction, I was frustrated and now 30 minutes late to the start of my first day. I frantically started asking any local I could find, “American University of Rome?!” No one understood what I was saying or what I was looking for, and instead I just got nervous, puzzled faces. So I wandered the hill, looking for any sign of AUR. Annoyed and upset, I turned the corner expecting another dead when an unexpected gasp escaped me. I had come across a sight of the most astonishing city I have ever seen: before me stood The Eternal City. Incredible architecture and engineering. Centuries upon centuries rich in history and culture. For so many years, tragedy and greatness and defeat and victory has covered the land. Countless stories of the Roman people and those who have entered their territory have remained alive. It was absolutely breath-taking and beautiful. I was in awe.
So while I was now terribly late to school, I remembered why I came to Rome. Yes, to go to school, but also to discover something outside myself-to discover the hidden gems of Rome and the beauty within.