In all honesty, I have put off writing this final blog post because doing so brings a finality to this whole experience. It takes away the slightest hope that perhaps we will receive notice that we can return back to Rome. Even though that may be far from the truth, this final post is a sendoff into reality\u2026one that I do not fully believe I am ready to accept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I must confess, that the words used in this post do not do\njustice to the true emotion of having our study abroad experience cancelled. These\nwords are simply descriptors for future students to see how impactful an\nopportunity like studying abroad truly has on students and their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although our final post is supposed to be about what we have\ntaken away and learnt from our time abroad, I do not feel like I had enough\ntime to truly grasp on to my experience to have a suffice answer. So instead,\nthis post will be a dedication to the moments and memories I do recall from my\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The morning of my departure felt surreal. The combination of\nexcitement and what felt like motion sickness did not dismay be from being as\nprepared as possible for the 4 months I was going to have abroad\u2026away from\nnormalcy, away from day-to-day routine, away from America. It felt like I had\nplanned for a study abroad experience ever since I learned what college was,\nand without a second thought in my mind, I was more than ready to embark on\nthis life changing experience. I had never truly had the opportunity to indulge\nmy life into a new country for the amount of time I was signing up for. My\ngoals were to find a new form of independence and become even more culturally\nrooted to the world around me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A month into stepping foot in Rome, it already felt as if my\nnew \u201ctemporary\u201d home had become a sanctuary to me. I had a new routine, one\nthat was different but fresh: Hot tea for the chilly mornings, 20-minute podcast\non the up-hill walk to school, classes with both American and Italian\nprofessors, lunch at the caf\u00e9s nearby, catch the bus back home, homecooked\nmeal, homework and bed. It was hardly believable to think someone could adapt\nto an environment so quickly for the sole reason of loving the way life felt in\nit. I remember finding that long-lost feeling of belonging when people asked me\nfor directions in Italian and I could answer back to them without much\ndifficulty\u2026 it did not take me long to start calling the bright yellow\napartment we lived in \u201chome\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weekends were the best because they were our time to\nexplore. We had 3 days (Friday- Sunday) to do absolutely anything: some\ntraveled out of the country, some stayed and adventured into the nooks and\ncrannies of the city. Having an apartment of 6 girls made the adventures all\nthe more fun because we had familiar faces to go home to at the end of the\nnight. However, the particular weekend of February 28th <\/sup>seemed like\none of the worst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c<\/em>In light of this development, we have\nmade the tough decision to cancel our ISA Spring 2020 programs in Italy. <\/em>It is important that you\nimmediately begin to make plans to return home.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rage,\nanger, fear, dismay. Questions of what to do, where to go, how to get\nthere\u2026.questions of why me? It is a truly difficult task to express how\neveryone reacted to the major crisis that confronted us. Now, almost two months\nlater, that momentary lapse feels like a blur in my mind because it happened so\nquickly. One second we were living life as we should\u2026the next we were left to\ndeal with a global pandemic. I think for many of us, we believed that nothing\nso drastic could happen to us. We believed we were cocooned from the rest of\nthe world, but in fact, we were the ones being directly hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One may\nthink that the morning after was metaphoric in some sense because I remember it\nbeing one of the sunniest days during our time abroad. The chirping birds and\nwarming sun juxtaposed our feelings of defeat and distraught. Nonetheless, we\nsat in the garden near our school, embracing as much light as we could and\nmourning the end of our study abroad experience. While some may think our\nreactions to this situation were overexaggerated, only we knew how devastating\nit was to have worked so hard to make a dream come true, and be so sure that it\nwould work out the way we planned\u2026only to have something, much bigger than\nanyone and out of our control, take it all away from us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A small\ngroup of us made an effort to wait-out our time as much as we could, traveling\nto the Netherlands, Belgium and London, trying to make the most of being\nabroad. But with new information being thrown at us every day, and a sense of\npanic in every place we went, we soon craved a sense of stability which inevitably\nconfirmed our travels back home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I often\ndo not believe I actually had the chance to study abroad because now it is as if it were a\ndream. When I entered back into the United States, it saddened me to hold my\ntongue when people asked me where I was coming from. Like the mask I wore to\nprotect my mouth and nose from contracting the virus as I walked through the\nempty airports, I also wore a separate mask that concealed the immense weight\nof emotions that circulated my mind. For me, the virus had taken away more than\njust contact with people\u2026it had taken away opportunity, connection and a living\ndream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would\nnot be truthful if I said that I was fully satisfied with the experiences I did\nhave while I was abroad, because while I enjoyed every moment in Italy, my\nambitiousness to do more still linger in my mind. I will however end this post\nwith a better note. While I do feel that this virus took away from me more than\nI thought I could handle, it proved to me that I was capable of dealing with\nsituations bigger than myself. It showed me the importance of fighting for what\nyou want and also accepting defeat. It gave me closer bonds and life-long\nmemories. I am human and while some have found peace of mind from this\nexperience, I am still processing and healing day by day. Although the universe\nmay have decided that now was the time to give the rest of the world a wakeup\ncall, I strongly believe it will choose for me to return back to Rome one day.\nIn the face of a global pandemic, I showed beyond doubt, that progress is\npossible if you make the active choice to move forward. Being grateful for the\nthings you can control, such as your health and wellbeing, which many at this\ntime are challenged with makes you realize how much you do have even when it\u2019s\nhardest to see. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In all honesty, I have put off writing this final blog post because doing so brings a finality to this whole experience. It takes away the slightest hope that perhaps we will receive notice that we can return back to Rome. 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