16.
You never really leave the place
you love. You take part of it with you and leave part of you there. | Unknown
Leaving
As I reflect on these past few
days, I find myself mixed in emotions. I had just completed my junior year
architecture studio. I had just completed my study abroad trip in Rome, Italy.
I had just completed a truly once in a lifetime experience.
It seems as though we always find
ourselves in one of two states. We are either wishing time to speed up, or
wishing for it to slow down. We never seem to be content with where we are at
and enjoying it for that said minute. That is because we are always thinking
about what is next.
As these final days passed by, I
tried not to get to wrapped up in trying to think what was next – going home to
be greeted by familiarity and my loved friends and families. Although this was
hard to do, as it is normal to feel this way after being separated from your
loved ones for over 3 months, I tried to focus on the reasons why I was in
Rome.
Architecture
On Tuesday, May 9th, I
completed my final junior year architecture jury. This studio semester was
honestly my most productive, creative and manageable studios that I have
participated in. My head was always in the game when I was in studio and I
found myself having less and less distractions even though I was in a city full
of excitement. I suddenly realized that if I push myself in studio for 4-6
hours, like I should have always been doing, I had the rest of the hours in the
day to participate in all of the exciting things going on in the city. In the
past, I found myself slacking off during those set studio hours and then lost
even more time in the middle of the night trying to catch up. The mentality of
focusing on my school work was extremely different here in Rome and I hope to
bring these practices back to the states with me in the fall as I go into my
senior year of architecture school.
Creating a special relationship with
my professors also made this studio experience one for the books. As a class,
we spent so much time with our three professors, who mind you, taught all of
our classes. We didn’t just meet with a professor for a mere 50 minutes, three
times a week. We traveled with our professors, ate with our professors and
learned with them. These professors cared about our interests, our lives back
in the states and our future plans.
I have a hard time understanding
why it was so easy to focus on architecture on a daily basis in Rome, when I
could not do so in Washington, D.C. Both are beautiful cities, with their own
unique architecture styles and of course, with their touristic highlights. Why
was I so much more in tune with my architecture and design calling in Rome,
when in D.C. I just took it for granted? Perhaps I take advantage that I live
in D.C. and I knew at the time being, I would only be in Rome for 3 short
months. Now as I go back to the states, I know that I cannot have the mentality
that makes it so easy for me to believe that I can take advantage of what American
cities have to offer. I truly plan on continuing to keep this architecture
passion alive as I travel back to D.C.
Community
Merriam Webster Dictionary
defines community as, “An interacting population of various kinds of
individuals in a common location”. Common location? Trastevere, Rome.
The community of Trastevere has
given me so much. It’s given me a beautiful CUA campus, many delicious things to
eat, beautiful places to run, tasty drinks to sit, exciting places to explore
and countless things to do. These memebers of this part of Rome, Italy gave me
so much during my 3 months here and I realized it was time to give back.
As I continued to ponder how in
the world I was going to get back all of my clothes in a suitcase that weighs
under 50 pounds, I got to thinking… I don’t need these boots. Then I came to a
realization that I definitely wasn’t the only person who was going to have a
hard time bringing back all of their belongings to the states. Instead of
throwing these items out, I decided there should be way to put them to good
use.
From my community service event a
few weeks ago, I became familiar with the Community of Sant’Egidio and how much
work they do with aiding refugees. After speaking with members of the administration
at the CUA Rome campus and with Claudio, Grace and Aurora’s help, we came up
with a community service project that would involve all of the CUA Rome
students. I set up a donation table where we would take in nonperishable goods,
unopened toiletries, gently used clothes and shoes. This ensured that students
weren’t just throwing out their travel sized toiletries, their sweatshirts that
weren’t squeezing into their suitcases and those cans of tuna that they never
got around to eating. We had the donation table up from Sunday evening until
Wednesday morning. We had at least 8 large black garbage bags of clothes, 3 of
shoes, 2 of nonperishable foods and 1 of school supplies. Some students and I
took these bags with Claudio to the department of goods that the Community of
Sant’Edigio had made to use as a donation store.
This process of donation had
never been done before at the CUA Rome campus and it saddens me to think about
how many garbage bags of clothes, shoes, toiletries and food could have been previously
passed along to other members of the community. My hope for this is that this
continues to be a tradition at the campus. It was a easy and sure way that
students were somehow giving back to the community that offered them so much
over their 3 month stay.
