Lucky

I'm going to Italy!!

For all my Southern Virginia friends who had the opportunity to take Dr. Barbara Crawford's Art History class (three months of Italian Renaissance plus one month of all other art), you'll understand how unbelievably happy this makes me. If you haven't taken that class, you'll probably still understand.

I only want to see three things in life:

1) Brunelleschi's Duomo (Florence, Italy)
2) The Northern Lights (anywhere too cold for me to ever want to live)
3) jk it's way too hard to narrow it down to three things.

We'll just stick with two.

Italy. Florence. Michelangelo. Chocolate chips. These things bring me joy. And here's how it all worked out: We're going to be living in France for two months, which is wonderful. However, when working out tickets we discovered that it would actually be less expensive to fly into ROME, rather than Paris. I was stunned, delighted, ecstatic. I emailed my art history professor, Dr. Crawford, to tell her the good news and ask for any input on artwork to see. She replied that the days I'll be in Italy with my group happen to coincide with the days she'll be in Italy with her group, and invited me to meet up with them.

I nearly cried. Could I be any more lucky?

Despite all these blessings, I'll admit I really struggled with homesickness this week. My friends were finishing up with finals, some graduating, others preparing to get married. Pictures of smiling people in beautiful, lush Virginia flooded my newsfeed. I was green with envy (see what I did there, Sova peeps?).

It's true that after years of living away from home, I still get terribly, tragically homesick. I'm a hopeless homebody. Even my parents, who know me so (frighteningly) well, seem bemused when I try to explain to them how I love being at home more than anywhere else. Even when home is in New Jersey. Ew.

Still, while scribbling away in my journal about how sad and jealous I was, I realized that I needed a dose of gratitude. I am surrounded by incredible people and opportunities, from Emme and her family in Ecuador to my college pals in BV to my dear family in Jersey to Dr. Crawford and her beloved Italian artwork. Lots of amazing people.

Guess I'm pretty lucky.