Salve Ken,
I know you don’t know what that means, it is the word for hello in Italian. I am writing to you to tell you all about your experience here in Florence. I know you did not know what to expect and you were right not to know what to expect because I look back on it now, and I still cannot believe what has happened here And the inconceivable ways that I have changed. It is crazy to think that my time here is coming to a close. It feels like I haven’t been home in 1 million years but that I got off the plane here yesterday from that hellish flight from DC. It was a little unnerving, getting here at first being in a new city, living with people that I had never met before. As we both know, I live alone on purpose, but living with roommates has been an interesting experience. I think that I have grown from it, I am an only child and knowing this, I’m not exactly good at sharing. At this moment, I am excited to go home and have my own space. However, I will miss the company of my roommates. In terms of how I have grown when I was here, I was right to not predict anything. I have grown in so many ways that I could not have imagined. I know that I didn’t really care about the things that mattered before but now I really don’t. I couldn’t care less what other people think of me and that is incredibly freeing and it will serve me well going into my sales career. I feel that I have also matured in how I travel having done it so much over these past few months. I know that I have learned a tremendous amount about places that I have never been to before, and I feel that his made me a more well-rounded person. In my exploring the city class we talked about what are called global citizens, and I feel that I have become one as I have a more holistic view of the world than I did before.
If I were to let myself know something before coming, I honestly wouldn’t because I feel that the unexpected is what made this trip so fantastic. Adapting on the go is what made me learn the lessons that I did here and so I would not let myself know anything before coming. Honestly what surprised me most about coming here is how much the city has changed over the last eight years. It is no longer a true Italian place, it has become a tourist playground that has been ransacked by globalization. I feel that I would not know anything about authentic Florentine culture if I had not taken the exploring the city class. The true Florentine lifestyle does not exist in the city center, everything you see is fake authenticity.
Go kill it,
Ken