Final Statement

Word of the Post: Arrivederci (Farewelll)

“When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it’s not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.”- Twilight-Stephanie Meyer

Playing college field hockey was absolutely a dream come true. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity that I had, to play with the teammates that I played with, play for the coaches that I played under, meet the people that I met, played in the games that I got to play in, see the schools I got to see. I was never the spotlight athlete in high school, and I was never seen as a field hockey player who would make it into a top tier school. Playing division 1 hockey after seeing only twenty-four seconds of varsity play time my freshman year of high school was beyond all expectations that I ever imagined.

So when that dream came to an end on April 14, I found myself grieving for a long time. But that was when my world was so small compared to what it is now. Now, I have actually seen the world. Now when I fly over a country, instead of walk or drive past a place, I can remember a time; a second, a minute, an hour, a day, even a month that I spent in a country. And I have no regrets.

The past three and a half months of my life were unexplainably, undeniably, unbelievable. I saw so many things, walked so many miles, met so many people, and learned more about myself than I ever have in my entire life because of this trip.

The truth is moments can either make us or break us. I let a moment break my last year. But not this time. This time the moments made me, and I made the most of those moments.

I want to thank you for joining me in my travels: seeing the places that I saw…reading my entries—both boring and entertaining, learning different Italian words, and opening my many emails throughout the semester. This semester was a blessing in disguise, and I am glad I had people to share it with. Now that I am back in the states, I have had to readjust. I slip at dinner and say grazie instead of thank you, and when I walk into a store I am taken back by how fast someone speaks English to me. Sometimes I think of how I am supposed to respond in Italian, and then realize the clerks are looking at me awaiting a response…I have been Romanized, and I hope that you feel a bit Romanized as well. It has truly been the adventure of a life time.

“Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure. We leave our homes for work, acting, and even believing that we will reach our destinations with no unusual event startling us out of our set expectations. The truth is we know nothing, not where our cars will fail or when our buses will stall, whether our places of employment will be there when we arrive, or whether, in fact, we ourselves will arrive whole and alive at the end of our journeys. Life is pure adventure.” -Maya Angelou