This study abroad has taught me that I value the idea that I only live once. Back in College Station, I considered myself to be a cautious person. I thrived under planning and deeply thinking about events and how to approach them. Italy presented a different pace of life for me. I had to learn to put planning aside at times and just go with the flow. Opportunities, such as weekend travel plans, were often made the day of. I had to make a conscious effort in the beginning to not stress internally about getting on a train with no clue what I would be doing at the destination. These spontaneous dinner plans, day trip plans, and even full weekend plans became some of my fondest memories.
My favorite weekend was when we traveled from Florence to Cinque Terre. We go to our Airbnb with no clue what beaches or excursions were around. We ended up finding a beach with a cliff that we proceeded to jump off of for the next several hours. This was not an event we could’ve planned. The cliff we were jumping off of was not a jumping cliff and the locals watched us and laughed. When we got back to the town that night there was a local party because their soccer team had won the championship. This too was not something we could’ve planned. Saying yes to spontaneous travel became the highlight of my time in Italy.