Mia's Life

It feels impossibly surreal to me that in just a couple days I’ll be looking out my airplane window on my way to a whole new beginning. I’ve never flown on a plane by myself let alone to Germany for an hour layover to go through customs and immigration then off to Rome only to sit through a 3-hour train ride to Padova. I’ll be in a desk sitting through a lecture where I don’t know anyone, being taught all of my subjects in Italian. As much as I tell myself all the new experiences I will be facing this year, it doesn’t entirely ever hit me. This year I am fully prepared to become a new me. This will be the year where I learn just how strong and capable I truly am.

Im thankful I haven’t been able to process everything because it has saved me from several panic attacks I have been told I might have. Every conversation I’ve had lately has gone like this: “How much longer until you leave” 4 days. “Oh my goodness! You must be SO nervous!”. Everyday I keep thinking the nerves will find me. Im awaiting for the moment I want to back out of all this. Everyday for a year now I have talked about this trip, and now this close to it actually happening it still feels like another day just thinking about it. no different from the others. I have zero expectations, so it truly feels like I’m thinking into the unknown. This exchange year that I have been preparing and working so hard for feels almost as if it were to be nothing more than a cloud. My day to day life for the past 15 years has always been the same. Obviously there are changes every now and then but nothing that wasn’t ever predictable. This experience is filled with nothing but empty questions and wonder. Which a lot of people could look at and get nervous, but to me it makes me think if I don’t know anything what’s there to be worried about?

Today is my last day working at Handels until I get back. I knew going into this job that I was only staying until my time in Texas was up. My time working has exceeded my expectations in ways I didn’t know it would. At first I only looked at it as a way to receive a paycheck, but every shift I have been given has brought me so much excitement. I seriously can’t think of a time I had dreaded to clock in. The team I work with truly couldn’t get any better, and the customers we have only brighten my day each encounter. Over these last couple days I have every meal planned out trying to squeeze in a “last” visit with someone before I leave. Yesterday, I attended my American school’s first football game which gave me the opportunity to see many people I’ve grown up with. I even had a going away party planned a couple weeks ago. My house was filled with so many people I care about, it was amazing. My time has been spent with lots of bittersweet goodbyes.

I have walked about 6 miles each night taking in the beauty of my hometown. At first it was to prepare myself for all the walking I’d endure in my “new Italian lifestyle” and of course good exercise, but it has filled me with so much joy to revisit the place I’ve called home for so long. I have even walked 3 marathons this summer. I may walk the same path over and over but I find a different beauty each time. Recently Ive been very invested in the moon phases after seeing a fully round bright red sphere being presented through the night sky. My dad has joined me lately, he even ran through sprinklers with me in the dark to hit my mile goal.

For the past 2 weeks my mom has shoved me into different shops personally sizing me into anything she can. If you know me, you know I am not a fan of shopping. I am a cheap skate at all costs and refuse to spend money unless I need to. An ideal shopping day to me would consist of gathering all the free samples I can find and browsing through clothes saying, “Oh this would be so cute” before walking away. This was in no way that type of shopping. Every store we left I gained a new bag. By the end of the day you would have thought I was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman after Mr. Edward Lewis gave her his credit card. I had shopping bags acting as a new winter coat covering my arms. I also now know my size for any and everything you can think of thanks to all the workers my mom hired as my personal assistants. We have finished 90% of packing. I was told I could only bring 1 suitcase to fit my year’s worth of items in. Thank goodness for vacuum seal bags because I have no clue what we would do without them. Now that clothes are finally checked off. The fun part of packing has begun, junky American snacks, only my mom seems to stress about them fitting even more than the clothes. I’d say if it were up to me there would be nothing in my suitcase other than Sour Punch Straw Bites and Ms. Vickies Spicy Dill Pickle Chips. I went to Target to grab all the food items I wanted my hosts family to try: barbecue sauce, peanut butter, chick fil a sauce, ranch, salsa, pickles, candy, etc. You know the necessities. I can proudly say my clothes and food will share 50/50 storage space.

Most times when I hear foreigner’s plans for America it consist a lot of fatty-foods. Therefore it has become my goal to cross off as many fast-food restaurants as I can. Even if it means they have to roll me onto my flight. I have attempted to space out these meals throughout the past couple weeks. Thankfully I have made a pretty large dent through my list. I still wonder which meal I will crave the most when I’m away. I guess only time will tell.

I’ve never allowed myself to regret. If I have made my decision it is set and sealed no “what ifs”. There’s no point if you can’t go back and change it. Besides there is always a positive outcome in everything that you do. Everything is a learning experience at the end of the day. There isn’t one decision that you can make that doesn’t shape you into the person you are, and I believe that with my whole heart.

This opportunity that I have been given I know I don’t deserve. The gift of experience and seeing the world is truly incomparably priceless. Im so grateful to have parents who support me even when it hurts them to see me leave. I wouldn’t be able to do this if it weren’t for them believing that I can. Each day that they raised me has led me to be independent enough to conquer this journey. I am so very grateful for everything they have done for me even if I don’t show it all the time.

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”- J.K Rowling