In just ten days I will move to the place that will be my home for the next three months: New York. This has made me think about the amazing months I’ve had in Italy and all the things that I have learned.
With every experience we have, we grow and we change. Even if we don’t want to change, our mind and our senses absorb every little detail or fact and make it part of our background. Suddenly we see ourselves thinking in a different way, more mature, doing things we didn’t imagine we were going to do, speaking in a different language…and sometimes thinking in that language even if it’s not your mother tongue.
I consider myself a very analytic person and reflecting about the things that happen in my life is a sort of therapy. It helps me to put some order on my thoughts. That’s why I decided to write this post about the five things that I have learned in the past 8 months in my first experience alone:
1. There is no ideal place to live. Yes, that’s it! I came to Italy because I was disappointed of the Venezuelan situation: the violence on the streets, the corruption, the burocracy, the constant fear of losing everything you have worked for in just three minutes. Many of these things don’t exist in Italy and that’s great, but here you have different problems. Burocracy is as bad as the Venezuelan one, people think all the time in a negative way about the country and live in a sort of depression that goes beyond the economic aspect. Needless to say that the economy has hit the country very hard, especially the younger population. Many young and talented citizens, with a tremendous academic record, can’t find a decent job and sometimes they don’t get paid for what they do. Now I’m preparing myself to go to the United States and I know that it won’t be a bed of roses. There is also the economic crisis and I’m not an American citizen, so I will have to face discrimination and all kinds of prejudices. But, you know what, I want to try and nobody will stop me!
2. I can’t plan anything. I think I have lost a bit of the illusion of control. I always bring with me my agenda where I write everything I have to do for the rest of the week…even the most absurd and evident things. But it happened to me that two weeks ago I didn’t know really if I was going to obtain my Visa to go to the USA. I had to pay the rent of my apartment for the month of June and then I had to leave it because is going to be sold. So, I found myself in a very difficult situation because my life depended on someone else. I couldn’t buy travel tickets because I wasn’t certain about taking the plane, and I couldn’t start looking for a new apartment in Milan because I didn’t know if I was going to stay in the city. I just had to wait. Now I know I’m going to NY for three months. What will I do later? I don’t know. Time will give me the answer
3. I realized I’m calmer than the rest of people I have found here. Some of my new friends in Milan have told me that if they would have faced what I have in the last months (the uncertainty about my future) they would have become mad. The fact is that I was really worried about my internship in New York, but I have learned that certain things are not under our control. So, if you can change things, do it! If you can’t, don’t worry because it’s not your fault and you can’t do anything about it.
4. I am more open to other cultures than many people I have met. In Venezuela, I was always complaining because people tend to be very focus about national issues and they ignore other cultures or what’s happening outside of the country. I have realized that in Italy the situation is not better. Here I have found people that don’t know where Venezuela is or people that ignore that Toronto is part of Canada and not the USA and so on…Now in America I know I will find the same situation. So, I have to thank God and my parents because I think they gave me a good education background that allows me to interact with people of Latin America about our problems and also understand European political dynamics and how the North American system works. And believe me, if you are studying International Relations, the ability to communicate with different cultures and to understand what they are expecting form you is a plus
5. Last but not less important…I have learned how to cook, how to wash my clothes, how to rent an apartment, how to prepare a bag, how to choose my flatmates and how to start somewhere else from zero. And that makes me very proud.
So, do you have some experiences like this? I want to hear from you. Please, leave a comment.
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