Reaching the end.

Wow, I am not doing so good with the frequent blogging. The last blog I wrote was March 10th?! A lot has happened since Spring Break, and now.. I leave Italy in 3 days. Where has the time gone?

This has been a very hard and emotional week for me. It is hard to admit that, because I have tried to cover up this feeling. This feeling of transition.. defiantly is something I do not have mastered in my life. It is so hard to visualize going home to America. Is that even my home? Yes, I was born and raised there.. but they say, home is where your heart is. Well, Italy has my heart. I think the hardest part of this transition back to America will be communicating with those that did not experience and see the things I did. Yes, other people have visited Italy.. or maybe even lived in Italy like I did. However, I can never, no matter how hard I try, explain what is on my heart now. Or express the love that I possess for these amazing people. I don't want to leave. I am heartbroken at the thought of leaving the cobblestone alleyways and the beautiful souls I have met, that have changed my life forever. This country has changed me as a person and as a Christian. God captured my heart in the discomfort of being in an unknown place. God took off the "goggles" that so many Americans have glued to their faces. The things I would normally see as "dirty, broken, or inconvenient", are now where I see God the most.

For an assignment, I was asked "What have you learned while being here in Italy?" Needless to say, the final writing assignment was 3 or 4 pages when I turned it in. I cannot even put fully into words the things I have learned. Not only historically and educationally about the many places I have visited. But also culturally. I have gotten the amazing chance to meet people from all over the globe, and even stay with some of them in their homes. I would encourage people all day, every day to leave. Leave the United States. Get out of the comfort of America, in fact, never be comfrotable. Never be "settled" at where you are at in life. Get out there and let the world mold and shape you for the better. The best piece of advice I have gotten, actually from my friend, Berit from Sweden, told me: "Yes, it will hard to go back. Chose to find the beauty everywhere you go. Take the good out of every culture and let it mold you. Keep traveling." Well, my dear Berit, that is exactly what I plan to do. Let the good of every culture mold me.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. 2 Tim 1:7