Ciao tutti!
My time here is more than just "dwindling down", it is absolutely flying by. No matter how often I think of it, I just can't get used to the fact that I'll be leaving. In 24 short days. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was counting down my last month in Morganton... as if only two seconds ago it was the end of February and I was counting down the days I had left in Italy, wondering if I could handle the homesickness. In the end I handled it just fine, in fact, I managed to delete all homesickness about a month later. Now I call Aosta, Italy my home just as much as Morganton, NC. I could go on and on, but instead I found this part of a blog that another exchange student I met in New York, in France at the moment, wrote. It basically sums up everything I want to say (and probably with less babbling). So here it is:
Sometimes I look around and still can't believe that this is all real. I know when I decided to come on exchange I was beyond excited, but looking back now I see how naive I really was, thinking exchange would be one big party. I never would have imagined the obstacles I would face or the people I would be so lucky to meet. Sure I have only been in France [Italy] for 4 short months, but this has become my life. When I log on Facebook now I don't see the faces of Bend [Morganton] anymore but rather the faces of the world. I see some of the most courageous, incredible people from all around the globe, I see the people who are really going to make a difference in this world, even if they don't know it yet. Before coming to France [Italy] I considered myself independent, and sure I was but nowhere near to the way I am now. I think on exchange you are really forced to find what you like and who you are. There's nobody else there to make your choices for you and you must find what you stand for. Even with others' opinions you learn to ignore those and really find what you want and get a better idea of who you are. You take opinions from all over the world and somewhere in between find your own.
There are people in my life now that I couldn't live without and lessons I've learned that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.
This is sort of a mini summary of an exchange and it's impossible to explain all the other aspects, but this paragraph does a great job describing it in general!
Anyways! Now I'll talk a little about what I've been up to and what I will be up to in my final days.
A little over a week ago I had a camp with my "AFS Zone". Although they might have been a few of the most fun days I have experienced here, they also made leaving that much harder. There were about 50 other exchange students and they were 50 of the greatest people I've met in my life. We spent 4 days laughing, crying, eating, singing, talking and hanging out with each other every minute of every day. After four days apart some of us met up again and we are planning to spend another day together in Torino tomorrow. The worst part is that, more than likely, after tomorrow (for year students) or our last night in Rome (for semester students) I won't ever see a lot of these people again in my life. This, in my opinion, is more sad than leaving my family and Italian friends. The great thing about host families and native friends is that they will always be in your host country for you to see when you go revisit the place you made your own home. But all the other other exchangers, the people that went threw all the ups and downs beside you, the only people who really understand you, won't be there. We'll all go back to being spread across the world in our respective countries. Meeting these people, hearing just the smallest things about their countries, talking about differences and similarities; it has only sparked my curiosity even more. Now I want to go to all these places, experience even more cultures, some similar to American and Italian, some absolutely 100% different!
Anyways, again! What else am I doing? On the 16th I head to Tuscany!! Two weeks under the Tuscan sun...I can't wait. Then, the day after I return, a big group of my friends and I are going to Gardaland. It's a huge amusement park near Milan, so I'll get to ride some roller coasters in Italia.
And lastly: my final 5 days in Italy. They will definitely be filled with tears, tons of goodbyes, but hopefully some good laughs mixed in as well. This has become not only my home, but my life. The only thing that makes everything harder is that it is a life that I will not be able to get back. Sure, I can come back and visit as many times as I want, but I will never get another 6 months to have my life in this amazing place. The other day my friend told me this "The best things in life come to an end. If they don't, they don't seem as great." It is so true. If I lived in Aosta my whole life, more than likely I would hate it! Saying goodbye and returning to my old life will be one of the hardest things I've had to do in my lifetime thus far and, to put it in a different light, I realize for this I am extremely lucky.
I would love to write more, but it's getting late here and I have to wake up early tomorrow!
Hope everything is going well for everyone who is reading this, and for those of you in Morganton, I will be seeing y'all soon!
Much love and un bacio,
Emma Miller
PS: sorry this post is so horribly written, I wrote it very fast and too late at night...who knows if it even makes sense!
