Ciao

Wow, what an interesting time when I used to blog nearly every day! Tomorrow I pack and make a last trip to the store for some Nutella (I'll know what to take out if my bag's too heavy, because I bet it's even heavier than syrup and peanut butter!). Saturday morning I board the plane at 10:45, make another 5 hour stop in Atlanta, rediscover the incredible miracle of a cellphone, and by 10:00 on the day after tomorrow, I will be back home.

I am honestly not in the mood to do a reflection piece. I did get to see Venice today, which was really, really cool because I have read stories that take place there and it was amazing to actually see the monuments or walk through the plazas I had once imagined. Those streets really do just inspire stories and mystery to me. Chiara and I had an incredible time trying on an assortment of hats and masks in one of the countless stores devoted to selling masks for the Carnivale. It is something I studied intensively in 8th grade (as intensively as one can study something in 8th grade, which if you went to APS Family School was a surprisingly lot), and actually seeing all of the masks first hand- and even getting to try some on!- made me decided that, that is something I definitely need to experience (the Carnivale where everyone wears all the masks) at some point in my life. Though I have a feeling that if ever again return to Italy (I am actually quite sure that I will), I will hope to never be brought back again by myself. How I thank God for this time of independent growth and self-actualization... one of the most important things I have learned about myself is how deeply happy it makes me to be with those I love. So perhaps it has been through this independence that I have discovered my dependence on others. Because of the kind of great love there is in the world to share, I believe this to be a very good thing! :)

I am wondering whether or not I will continue blogging when I get home. The most wonderful thing is that, as this trip was only a piece of the journey that got me here, (as was every single day, step by step as it came and as I faced its challenges and joys), the end of this trip is only the next step in the next part of my journey. This idea of journeying and valuing the moments along the way, as they happen, more than the destination has become more real to me than ever through these experiences. What I might once have given lesser value in my mind by minimizing to just a "metaphor" or even an allegory, now seems to me quite real and personal and true; I have no heasitancy in potentially nearing the end of this blog with the reaffirmation that life is a journey even more than the actual fact of traveling to another place can be a journey. I do not even care if it is cheezy, because to me this is what give me hope: my journey does not end here; I am only going to begin the next part.

I am so thankful, really. I named this blog, THE JOURNEY having a sense of thebidea that my long-formed dream of comming to Italy comming true would not be a destination, but truly, an experience in which I would grow into a better traveler, not of just the world, but more importantly, of my life. I would never have guessed in all my years of dreaming about it, that it would have happened this way- and it has been more fulfilling, more wonderful, and more true to the deep desires of my heart than I even could have imagined! I thank GOD for leading me here, because it was HIS timing, HIS plan, and HIS hand not only leading me step by step, but teaching my heart to take it in those incriments. I have been utterly atounded, blessed, and truly, changed by what I have found in those moments. The cool thing is, it seems like more of a journey now, to me, than it even was in the beginning, so I really am glad that I named it that, and I really am glad that you decided to share it with me. :) Thank you so much for reading, for listening, for caring and commenting or just looking- it has been such an incredible experience not only to see and do the things I have, but to be able to share them with others and in that way share the adventure together! My trip really wouldn't have been the same if it had just been me with my journal, left to my own, silent thoughts. That sounds really lonely right now! It was SO much more fun to be able to laugh and joke by sharing the fun with you- even if I ran out of pictures; sorry about that! ;D

I guess for once it's actually a good thing for me to say goodbye now, because tomorrow and the next day I have to face some real goodbyes, and I already feel a bit melancholy and helpless just thinking about it (I haven't TOTALLY gotten the whole live-in-this-moment, don't-spend-your-time-thinking-and-especially-worrying-about-the-future thing down yet). But I have encountered something there that I was supposed to find. It was the right timing; this trip was God's plan for me. I realized it was through the support of my friends and family years before I ever got to come, through the peace in mine and my mom's hearts when it seemed to work out for me to come this summer, through the OVERLY kind and generous gifts of my Aunt Anne and Uncle Joe giving me my plane ticket and Sara and Stefano taking me in in every way possible for these last two months, every time I saw the big dipper (seriously), and even now, that it's about to be over: this was God's doing. It wasn't mine. I would have done it all different; in fact, I was trying to. But I thought to God, "Though going to Italy is what I want more than anything else, for some reason, if I go my own way and you aren't there, it would be the worst thing possible." Well, God didn't let me do that, instead HE lead me here, in His way, and He has led me each day since, in every way possible, and I know He will continue to do this, and that is such an incredible adventure!

I guess I sort of wrote a reflection afterall, but it just seems natural now that I'm finnished. Knock on Wood. This table is wood and I just did, and since it is now 12:40 am and I am seriously... tired... and have pretty much every right in Italy to be (instead of every right in the world to be, which seems slightly presumptious), so I really am finnished now. Thanks ;)

Ciao