By Alice Adams
As the summer heat sets in, we are preparing to draw to a close our year in Florence.
Some of us will return next year, and others will not. Some of us will go straight home to the lives we have missed and others will continue pursuing adventure in the European summer. But no matter where we go next, we will always remain bound by our experiences here in Florence; by our navigation of international life and our adaptation to the rigors of study at the university level.
We have shared laughter over our follies and perhaps tears over our mistakes, worries, and heartsickness. We have shared pastas in thick sauce and saltless Tuscan bread, days in grassy fields and evening dinners inside. We have shared frustrations over exams and the peaceful inconveniences of this great country, too, but we will always have the lushness of our shared terrace and afternoons under the sun, club meetings in cozy apartments, looming buildings and the histories attached, laundry hanging out the window to dry, favorite sandwich spots, and dinnertime ingredients traded back and forth between apartments.
Even those of us who did not become distinctly friends, or those who rarely saw each other around the building or in class, are now united in the sweetnesses and pains of this tender Florentine life.
As we hang on to the last ounces of energy through packing and traveling home, perhaps we can fit in some reflection. And, if not, the plane and train rides home will surely give us ample time. Which brings me to this: a meditation on the Italian way of being and our place in this big world. Here are some thoughts that I, honored as I am to be your yearlong blogger, have taken away from this time together.
Balancing college and travel
For many of us, this was our first time living in a region dense with new beauties of the world. It makes perfect sense that we wanted to be out there every weekend, seeing a new city, country, mountain, town, and all. And for most of us, this was our first year as full-time university students balancing workload, schedules, and exams.
Sometimes, when overwhelmed by all this city and continent have to offer, it was easy to forget what we were doing here. We have been lucky enough to have spent our first year of college in Florence; some days, we’ve forgotten that responsibility, and some days, we’ve felt smothered by it. It’s a lot to go from high school to college at all, but especially so far from home and where there is so much to take in.
But here is what I know: It’s a gift to learn. Not just to attain a degree, but to attain the privilege of sitting in a classroom and engaging in material with professionals and fellow eager peers. School is not something we have to do, it’s something we get to do.
And it’s a gift to learn here. We wanted to make the most of it, and sometimes we strayed from getting to know the city in favor of maximizing our time in Europe. So perhaps one of the key lessons from this year was balance: maybe we achieved it, maybe we never did. But either way, balance is the foundation of a contented life, whatever that may look like for you.
Reflections have a lot to teach us about how we may proceed in the following years of university study. Let’s contemplate what went well during the days we felt balanced, and what went wrong during the days we felt ourselves tipping off the tightrope into the void of experience. Our answers to those questions are a map we can use to guide ourselves while moving on to the next place.
The complications of life in Florence
We’ve come to know the highs and lows of existence in one of the most tourist-trafficked parts of the world. True, we are tourists in our own way, and contribute to the gridlocks of skinny streets. But we have also had the advantage of a yearlong stay here; a year of sleeping and waking in a town most people only pass through.
Being one of the most populated study abroad locations, some students have experienced the moments of tension that happen when locals express their stress caused by heavy tourism. But this can also be a lesson in refraining from letting a downside sour an entire experience: how can we make this experience a privilege while also grappling with these other moments?
It’s about balance in how we remember. Let’s not forget about the cafe owners who showed us kindness and indulged our beginner Italian. Let’s not forget the banter with the friends we’ve made among other students, city workers, and professors. It’s only human nature to “lamentarsi delle sfide”, but it always serves to remind us that we should remember the laughter. And, of course, we must not forget each other.
Connecting with culture in the birthplace of Rebirth
Here in the city of the Renaissance, we’re surrounded by an unfathomably extensive amalgam of centuries of food, art, architecture, and learning. Every street is dense with history and achievement, and there is always a landmark or museum only a block away.
In one way or another, this has been an artistic year for all of us. Whether through connecting with creating art in or out of class, or observing some of the great works and buildings that reside here, we’ve all gotten a taste of the Renaissance experience. This year in Florence has refined all of our artistic sensibilities, even if you’ve discovered you don’t really like Renaissance art as much as you like modern art, Latin American art, impressionism, or one of the many other artistic movements of humankind’s storied history. But travel, food, music, and the experience of life abroad are all inherently artistic, too. Are these nine months in Italy not a, though perhaps intangible, work of art we’ve created ourselves and together?
Summer can be for exploring the artists we’ve become. One of the beauties of art is that it’s not bound by one definition, so let’s allow ourselves to open our thinking of what art can be to include all the facets of our time in Florence. Let’s view our time in this artistic city as a work of art in itself.
Over this year, we’ve felt the pains and ecstasies of adjusting to something completely unlike anything we’ve experienced before. And now we take our final exams, pack up our lives, and go home. We have been lucky to come, and we are lucky to have somewhere to return to.
There is no one who can say they have not been changed by this experience. We’ve spent this year learning about the world, and as it wraps up, it’s time to carry away with us everything that we also learned about ourselves.
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