A farewell to Roma

Well, look at that. Too soon, it seems, we're at the end of our journeys in Rome.

I was told that I had the hardest job. The last post on daily diary, I am supposed to sum up our trip. However, I feel it would be an injustice to each and every person on this trip, as well as an insult to every private sweet memory for one person to try to sum it up on a blog for the world to read.

Above the art, the things we've seen, the places we've discovered and the new friendships we've made, above everything, there is one single thing that makes this trip so amazing and so special to the 10 students (and yes, even to the one professor) that I cannot describe for the rest of you. Maybe some of us ourselves don't realize what we have gained yet...some of us are just glad to be going home, and probably won't think of Rome until the excitement of seeing their friends and family once again, eating at their favorite places that had been deserted by them for almost 3 months. But what we all went through was so incredibly internal and amazing, that to try to describe it to the outside world would be an almost laughable spectacle.

Our memories. Our growth. Our bonds with each other. Our bonds with Rome. The intricacies of day to day life over there. We all made ourselves a completely different life over there - a completely different self. I can't speak for everyone else when I say what an impact that self has made. I learned more about myself and life than I had ever previously experienced. I saw growth in my fellow classmates that I haven't seen take place in my closest friends over the course of years. Whether we like it or not, the 10 of grew close. And even though we liked some more than others, we all shared something over the course of these last 2 and a half months that will stay with us, very likely for the rest of our lives.

Am I being too sentimental? Probably. And I know the point of this daily diary is to, obviously, document what we do everyday. But short of a profound internet novel, I don't think I could ever do that here. I know the ardent followers of our journeys probably know and remember what we did even more than some of us can recall - the names of churches, the piazzas, the art - it all flows together for us in a haze of thought, memories and emotion. I guess what I'm trying to get at, for those of you who want a summation of our trip, on this, the last day in Rome, is this:

We all learned more about life and grew as people here more than we ever could've in a classroom. Educators, parents, and people who have any interest in young people, you should all be proud of the 10 honors kids who lived life for two and a half months in a foreign country, on a foreign continent with foreign customs and who come back to you not only safe (which when I think back to certain times, is an amazing accomplishment) but a new notion of how the world works outside our country and some actual real-life knowledge.

(oh yeah, and we come back with new expectations for coffee. Sorry, I don’t think Starbucks is gonna cut it anymore...)

Shayla