Haven’t used this blog for a while to write something about my personal life, so I decided to do it right now, although I am going through a particularly boring life patch. Yet, it’s September, a month that is meant to bring along some rain but also new situations, new life experiences, new beginnings.
Almost every new experience in life starts in September, doesn’t it? The first day at school, university, a new job... I guess, you all can but agree with that and, perhaps, you reader are embarking on a new journey just right now, when reading this post, whether is starting a new academic year or a new working year. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still looking for my next journey to embark on, and although sometimes it seems I’ve found it, some hindrance appears out of the blue getting my path stuck. When this happens, after moaning and wailing about it for a while, I just sit nostalgically remembering my “good old days”...just like now, that I flick through the memories of a past Summer that doled me out some happiness and hope, but also sorrow and disappointment.
This summer started with an exam. Not one I had to sit for, but one that my very first students had to take. It was a day crammed with emotions, expectations, satisfaction as well as disappointment. Yet, an experience to treasure for many, regardless the results, because what really matters is the journey not its end. “You know what? English is not that bad. I think I can learn it, after all!” this was what one of my most challenging students told me once he came out of the exam room and what really made everything worth it.
Then, it was time for another journey that started in the middle of July, a journey to England with my family that was so much looking forward to seeing the place I called my home throughout all 2011.Warwick University is a place where I left treasured memories, where I understood that friendship or love know no boundaries of country or age and where I took my first steps in the world of grown-ups. One year seems to be a long time but time also goes by quickly, especially when you are a student abroad with a whole new life to cope with and so many opportunities to make your own. However, in no time I found myself sitting on the floor of my Heronbank bedroom trying to pack into boxes all that I had accumulted throghout a challenging and rewarding year and trying to accept the idea that I was not going back to that place again. But last July I went back there and this time was to enjoy my graduation ceremony.
I still remember the graduation day like it was yesterday: the heavy excitement, the fear of tripping while walking down the stage to shake the chancellor’s hand and receive my degree, the solemn but also amusing chancellor’s speech and the inspiring talk by the Warwick alumna Fiona Barton that filled us with hope and optimism for our future. Then, it was just some snapshots and, in just a blink of an eye, everything was over again leaving a bitter aftertaste; because these kinds of events highlight the culmination of something but also the conclusion of something; and this something was that one year life journey that I shared with people from all across the world and from all walks of lives. The graduation ceremony was the formal closure of this unbelievable period of my life and pervaded me with a feeling of nostalgia that still now lingers on my heart. Still, once I left Warwick and got to London to meet some of my most dearest friends that I had left last September, a beaming smile replaced the nostalgic frown on my face.
I am glad they didn’t kick us out of Nando’s the night we had dinner there, when I was laughing so hard for something that one of my friends said or did that I think the owner would have called the police, if he only had seen! Yet, no one was drinking alcohol, but this is just the evidence that you don’t need to drink alcohol to be happy...It was really a night full of laughs and good food (at least as far as I’m concerned! XD) followed up by a looong phone call between me and Mei (because we CLEARLY had NOT had enough time to catch up during the dinner) where we shared our “deepest secrets” just like we used to do in one of our bedrooms when living in Heronbank.
What was next, it was just a rushing August that made me one year older and a bit disappointed and tried to make it up by bringing me on a fun holiday with my sister and two dear friends of mine on the Ischia island, where we spent our time swimming, lying under the sun and having fun at night by also involving in crazy dances not so young people staying in our hotel, who apparently needed dance teachers like us to hit the floor. XD
And now that is over and my days are again made of hours of job hunting and studying to keep my languages and skills up, hoping that I will be taken for one of the jobs I’ve been applying for, I again moan and wail about how difficult is for me leaving here in Italy and so much miss my life back in England, where there were so many opportunities around me. I’ve always lived my life in the anticipation of “what’s next?”, and now that I can’t make out any “next” ahead, it scares me a bit. Still, I’m determined not to give up, because what I had and what I had been through was something I had worked hard to get. I’m sure my next journey is going to start soon, although this time it won’t begin in September, apparently! :)
Almost every new experience in life starts in September, doesn’t it? The first day at school, university, a new job... I guess, you all can but agree with that and, perhaps, you reader are embarking on a new journey just right now, when reading this post, whether is starting a new academic year or a new working year. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still looking for my next journey to embark on, and although sometimes it seems I’ve found it, some hindrance appears out of the blue getting my path stuck. When this happens, after moaning and wailing about it for a while, I just sit nostalgically remembering my “good old days”...just like now, that I flick through the memories of a past Summer that doled me out some happiness and hope, but also sorrow and disappointment.
This summer started with an exam. Not one I had to sit for, but one that my very first students had to take. It was a day crammed with emotions, expectations, satisfaction as well as disappointment. Yet, an experience to treasure for many, regardless the results, because what really matters is the journey not its end. “You know what? English is not that bad. I think I can learn it, after all!” this was what one of my most challenging students told me once he came out of the exam room and what really made everything worth it.
Then, it was time for another journey that started in the middle of July, a journey to England with my family that was so much looking forward to seeing the place I called my home throughout all 2011.Warwick University is a place where I left treasured memories, where I understood that friendship or love know no boundaries of country or age and where I took my first steps in the world of grown-ups. One year seems to be a long time but time also goes by quickly, especially when you are a student abroad with a whole new life to cope with and so many opportunities to make your own. However, in no time I found myself sitting on the floor of my Heronbank bedroom trying to pack into boxes all that I had accumulted throghout a challenging and rewarding year and trying to accept the idea that I was not going back to that place again. But last July I went back there and this time was to enjoy my graduation ceremony.
I still remember the graduation day like it was yesterday: the heavy excitement, the fear of tripping while walking down the stage to shake the chancellor’s hand and receive my degree, the solemn but also amusing chancellor’s speech and the inspiring talk by the Warwick alumna Fiona Barton that filled us with hope and optimism for our future. Then, it was just some snapshots and, in just a blink of an eye, everything was over again leaving a bitter aftertaste; because these kinds of events highlight the culmination of something but also the conclusion of something; and this something was that one year life journey that I shared with people from all across the world and from all walks of lives. The graduation ceremony was the formal closure of this unbelievable period of my life and pervaded me with a feeling of nostalgia that still now lingers on my heart. Still, once I left Warwick and got to London to meet some of my most dearest friends that I had left last September, a beaming smile replaced the nostalgic frown on my face.
I am glad they didn’t kick us out of Nando’s the night we had dinner there, when I was laughing so hard for something that one of my friends said or did that I think the owner would have called the police, if he only had seen! Yet, no one was drinking alcohol, but this is just the evidence that you don’t need to drink alcohol to be happy...It was really a night full of laughs and good food (at least as far as I’m concerned! XD) followed up by a looong phone call between me and Mei (because we CLEARLY had NOT had enough time to catch up during the dinner) where we shared our “deepest secrets” just like we used to do in one of our bedrooms when living in Heronbank.
What was next, it was just a rushing August that made me one year older and a bit disappointed and tried to make it up by bringing me on a fun holiday with my sister and two dear friends of mine on the Ischia island, where we spent our time swimming, lying under the sun and having fun at night by also involving in crazy dances not so young people staying in our hotel, who apparently needed dance teachers like us to hit the floor. XD
And now that is over and my days are again made of hours of job hunting and studying to keep my languages and skills up, hoping that I will be taken for one of the jobs I’ve been applying for, I again moan and wail about how difficult is for me leaving here in Italy and so much miss my life back in England, where there were so many opportunities around me. I’ve always lived my life in the anticipation of “what’s next?”, and now that I can’t make out any “next” ahead, it scares me a bit. Still, I’m determined not to give up, because what I had and what I had been through was something I had worked hard to get. I’m sure my next journey is going to start soon, although this time it won’t begin in September, apparently! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment