La dolce vita, “the sweet life”. I did not fully understand what that meant until I lived it.
Five months ago I did not know what hang drying my clothes, a three minute espresso at a cafe, and a small sweet breakfast would teach me about how to live. But Italy has a way of making the small things matter, and somewhere between the adjustments and the surprises, this semester been the most formative of my life.
I came to Milan imagining long study sessions in beautiful cafes, my laptop open, espresso beside me. What I found instead was that Italian cafe culture does not work that way. Not because it is rushed, but because the cafe is meant for presence and face-to-face connection, not screens. Nobody opens a laptop. Nobody puts in headphones. Coffee is a pause in the day, a moment to actually be with the people around you. The workers at the cafe on our block became some of my favorite people in Milan precisely because of that culture. I showed up, I put my phone away, I learned a few words of Italian, and suddenly I was not a tourist anymore. I was a regular.
The small adjustments added up quickly. Hang drying my clothes instead of a dryer. Grocery stores the size of a convenience store back in Texas. Breakfast that was small and sweet when I am someone who needs a full meal and a lot of protein to start my day. None of these things were dramatic, but together they told me something important: I had been more shaped by my American rhythms than I realized, and there was more than one way to live well.
What surprised me most, though, was how quickly connection happened when I made the effort. I did not expect the language barrier to become a bridge, but it did. Learning even a little Italian opened doors I never anticipated. A simple “buongiorno” as a genuine attempt to greet them with respect was enough. Italians met my effort with warmth every single time. I had arrived assuming the language would keep me at a distance, but yet, it pulled me closer.
That became a theme of the semester. The things I thought would be obstacles often turned out to be the very things that connected me to people and to place.
At Bocconi, I found that my initial impressions were largely accurate. It is a school of genuine excellence, global in every sense, and rigorous in ways that pushed me. What I underestimated was how much the international classroom would shift the way I think. Sitting alongside students from South Korea, Brazil, Germany, India, and dozens of other countries, I learned that the questions I thought were universal were often just American. Business, leadership, and even values look different depending on where you are standing. That has been one of the most lasting gifts of this semester.
I am leaving Milan carrying something I did not come here looking for: a new pace. Not slow, exactly, but more intentional. The Italians have taught me that excellence and rest are not opposites. That a long lunch, a walk through an old street, a coffee enjoyed without looking at your phone are not distractions from a productive life. They are part of one, and I truly aim to bring that home with me. The most meaningful moments of this semester were not the ones I planned. They were the unhurried ones, the long dinners, the conversations that had no agenda, the friendships that formed because I stopped rushing long enough to let them. I want to carry that home with me.
And through all of it, the adjustments, the surprises, the moments of homesickness and wonder, the thing that grounded me most was discovering that God’s character was exactly the same in Milan as it is in Houston. His steadiness, his faithfulness, his presence in the ordinary moments did not change. I lived those six months as a constant witness to the truth of Joshua 1:9: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
I thank God for my time in Milan and am excited to see how He uses this time in my story as I move forward to post-grad and my long-term career.
Gig ’em from Milan, one last time.
Sarah Seymour
Class of 2027 Marketing Student | Mays Business School, Texas A&M University
Bocconi University | Milan, Italy | May 2026
