Ciao!

Sadly, my time in Florence is coming to a close. This has truly been an experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life like all things it had its ups and downs, but thankfully mostly ups. Going into the study abroad experience, I did not know what to expect. In short, I traveled, met people, made new friends, learned and grew as a person. Florence has been an interesting place. I am glad to have been able to call at my home for the last four months. The classes that I took here you could not take anywhere else like my musicology class where we talked about how museums are run and the history of Florence and then went to those physical museums and got up close and personal with the actual history. Another fantastic example is the exploring the city class. I would not know nearly as much about Italian and Florentine culture if not for that fantastic class. 

I have definitely grown as a person from this experience. I don’t feel that I have grown academically, however, personally I have grown. Before coming I definitely wasn’t the kind of person to hold back or care what other people think. That is definitely not the case, now I care even less in a good way. I am no longer held back by public perception. This has been incredibly freeing as I now feel that I have more drive to do the things I want and need to do Without being hindered. This will absolutely go on to help me in my future career in sales as I already have a job lined up, waiting for me when I graduate in the fall. I also feel that I have become much more well-rounded as I have traveled all over. I am incredibly fortunate to have traveled all over the world from a young age so coming here and staying in Florence did not make me feel more worldly. However, having traveled all over Europe, while being here I feel that I have become what we talked about in one of my classes, a global citizen. I have a much broader view of the world and a big picture understanding of how everything is intertwined.

My time here has truly been life-changing and it is definitely something that I will not forget for the rest of my life. I am truly thankful for having this opportunity.

Ciao from Firenze for the last time,

Ken