It was 4:30 am, and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Not for any romantic reason that my final sleep in Florence would imply, but simply because there were one too many mosquitoes in my room. That buzzing that grows heavy and then quickly fades in irritatingly frequent intervals, announcing the inevitable 30 bites that you will encounter in the morning… I couldn’t handle it. So I got dressed and headed towards Piazzale Michelangelo for my last sunrise. I know God sometimes pushes you out of your comfort zone to grace you with nice surprises, like spontaneous sunrises, but sometimes I wish He’d do it in ways that don’t leave me with 12 mosquito bites on my face (literally. I counted.). But I digress.
Suddenly, it was 5:30 am, and it dawned on me that in exactly 48 hours, I would be getting into a taxi in Rome to get on a flight back to the US. The day I thought would never come.
I can’t imagine spending my last morning in Florence any other way but this. It was during mornings like these that I did some of my best reflecting, and when I happened upon some of the most important instances of clarity and appreciation.
I remember my first sunrise here. I watched it with my friend Hanna on her last morning, an overpowering feeling of jealousy stirring up inside of me as she expressed her excitement to return to family, friends, and familiarity, while I wasn’t even half way done. And now, here I am, the twilight of my own last day in Florence. Truly bittersweet. Studying abroad is such an odd experience… Your relationship with the city you live in is so dramatic. At such a far distance, you can’t really say when you’ll be back, if ever. Things feel so… Final. I guess life’s like than in general, though. Graduations, going away parties.. They all commemorate the ends of the eras and epochs of our lives. But they also make way for future adventures. Which is a good thing.
And so with this final morning reflection, I close this chapter of my life. The chapter that encompasses living out of a suitcase and a backpack, that has me living in cities only five months at a time, planning only for the short-term. I’m so thankful to have been able to experience such a series of adventures, and I can honestly say that in the end, it was worth all of the stress and difficulty. I learned a lot about myself and what I can handle. And I’ve come to appreciate my life in the States exponentially more. In essence, this was a wonderful, eye-opening experience that I never ever want to go through again, haha.
Granted, I will miss many many things (read: food), but I cannot wait to be able to unabashedly wear hoodies in public, order an afternoon coffee to-go,and hear music in Church again…
And hopefully I’ll be disciplined enough to carry over some of the highlights of my temporary European way of life (my goodness, how pretentious do I sound). Unashamedly taking time to enjoy doing nothing, splurging a bit on high quality cheeses every once in a while, going to the market more often for fresh groceries, spending more time outside …
Lastly, though I wanted to thank you for following me along on this journey, and for your patience throughout all of the complaints and philosophizing, dramatic rants about life that I’ve imposed upon your thinking space. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these posts at least half as much as I enjoyed writing them. All in all, it’s been, appropriately… Un’avventura.
