It’s the first day of week five and while today may be slow, the time here has flown by and it seems like there’s no stopping it. It’s crazy that spring break is so close to us and yet I feel like I haven’t been here for that long. Before I came to Italy, I decided to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and if I got anything from reading it before my big adventure, it was the word attraversiamo. Although I have realized that it hasn’t been a typical word here in Italy, in the book it is explained to mean “let’s cross over”. It has been one that I feel can embody my time here, not just in Italy, but in all the places and cultures I’ve gotten to experience so far and still have yet to experience.

While we do get to travel so much, my wanderlust has not stopped. So far I have traveled outside of Ariccia every weekend to new cities and new countries, to see new places and faces, yet I still want to see more. I have gotten to experience Vienna, Munich and Milan with Barcelona coming up this weekend. Just the idea of having a new experience in a new place has been something I look forward to each week. I didn’t expect our weeks and weekends to vary as much as they have on a day to day basis. In our weeks there has always been something new, whether it’s been who we’ve met, like our Italian families, or where we’ve gone, inside or outside of the country, there’s just so much to take in. I hope I don’t forget to take a second to stop and truly take it all in.Before we know it our time here will be over and we will all be on to the next thing. Unlike most of the other girls here, I don’t know what my next step will be, and I’m slowly becoming more okay with it. This journey hasn’t gone as expected and it has taught me that not many things in our life do, no matter what we may think. This has been a constant reminder for me to change my mindset. To cross over from one way of thinking to another, one that’s okay when things don’t go as planned. And I hope that no matter what, amidst all of our travels throughout our remaining time here, I stop to smell the roses and recognize that there’s a reason and a season for everything.

Attraversiamo,

Kelsey Stratford