The Countdown Begins!

In eleven short days, I’ll be leaving for Norway. Then I come back home for my summer internship. Then, in an agonizing 80 days, I head off for a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. Traveling has always been a dream of mine. When I was visiting colleges and talking with admissions counselors, study abroad was a big priority. Now, four years later, I’m finally getting to live that dream.

First up, the unexpected trip: Norway. I had never ever thought I’d go to Norway. Not that I was or am opposed to the idea, it just hadn’t ever crossed my mind. But now that I’m going (with my family, nonetheless), I’m very excited. Norway represents a lot of untapped family history, a whole big section of my heritage with which I am unfamiliar. I’m hoping that this trip will expose me to a wealth of knowledge about my ancestors pre-migration to the fabled Land of Opportunity. I think Norway also represents a chance for me to center myself. A lot has happened in my life in the past two months — good and not so good — so I’m hoping that disappearing into the Norwegian countryside with my family will help get me back on track. I’m feeling the need for some fresh air, sunshine, and the unfamiliar. While there’s comfort in going home and being around the things you’ve always known, it’s also good to go and spend some time in a new place. It makes you think and assess and reassess and appreciate things.

Then it’s back to the familiar, which I also need. I want nothing more right now than to go home and cuddle with my cats. Honestly. That’s the top item on my priority list. I’m also getting excited for my internship. As far as I know, I’ll be interning in the education and programming department at my local public museum. While I’m not sure what exactly I want to do when I graduate in May, I do know that I love museums and that I am passionate about non-classroom education. As someone who was home-schooled up til college, I spent many a field trip in a museum, which shaped me as a student and as a person. But this is bigger than just home-schooling. I believe that children learn A LOT from out of classroom experiences — experiences that museums can give them. Museums allow kids to explore their interests in ways that are both entertaining and easily accessible to all learning types. However, I also think a lot of people ignore the role that museums have the potential to play. Since learning in a museum setting was such a big part of my upbringing, it’s important to me to give kids similar experiences, no matter what their educational background. I’m thankful that, as important as this is to me, I get to spend part of my summer learning more about museum education and actually applying that information in a real-world setting.

Finally, at the end of August, I jet set off to Florence, where I’ll be living and studying until mid-December. I’ll be learning Italian, doing a home-stay with a host family, eating everything I can get my hands on, taking three other elective courses, and traveling as much as I can. More will be posted about the Florence trip once I have more information. At this point, I’ve done just about everything that I can: I’ve submitted all my paperwork, applied for my student visa from the Italian Consulate, sent in my housing form so that I can be matched with a host family… there’s nothing else I can do! So for now, I just have to sit and wait. This is the hardest part about the whole process for me. I have always disliked not knowing what’s going on and being unable to control things, so the waiting game kills me. I like to have everything planned out and know what’s going on, so when I’m completely out of control, I tend to get a little antsy. This summer, I’m trying to get myself used to the fact that I cannot control everything. Obviously. However, this is really difficult for me. So I have to work really hard to not attempt to fix every little perceived problem in my life. If you know me, you’ll know that I’m very driven and pretty darn efficient, so when I set my mind to something, it’ll usually happen. But I’m realizing that I can’t fix everything. Like I said, this is very difficult for me. It’s not a fun process. So in a way, playing the waiting game with all this information on Florence is good for me. It’s a stepping-stone — a small problem that I’m actually totally ok with not being able to fix or rush. This is one small step for mankind, one giant leap for me.