There are moments in your life that pass you by, ones you wish you took in just a little bit more and the ones that can not control, that fly by in the blink of an eye. A year and a half later after returning from my study abroad trip, it feels like a little but of both in my mind... and I'm beyond grateful for it.
My memories of Florence all sort of burst into my mind in moments. Moments of my friends' and I laughing, memories that make me feel again those feelings of extreme joy and pure happiness...but sometimes it feels like six weeks worth of memories crammed into a split second of my life that will become a blur one day. I wish I could say I remember every little detail about the street art, the cobble stone roads that about broke our ankles more times than not, or the names of restaurants we fed ourselves into a food coma at. I do not remember every little detail or every little moment and some of my memories may only come to me in blurs of laughter and adventure. But what I feel in those memories, is exactly as I felt in the moments and that is something I could never forget. My memories give me those same feelings I felt sitting on the Santa Croce and seeing it from my apartment window, or walking by The Duomo at night, and how it felt climbing to the top, or walking past the carousel and just living in the live music of the Italian street performers. Those feelings are something I hope I never lose.
Because in hind sight, six weeks of my life is not much more than a minuscule pin on the map of my twenty-one years on this Earth, especially with so many more years left to live. But there is no experience I've had that has been more impacting or inspiring than those six weeks I spent over seas immersed in new culture, fresh pasta, and most importantly the gelato that can heal any soul. So even though I may not remember how my pasta tasted from that gluten-free restaurant on the side of the Duomo, how to walk from one side of the Arno to the other side of the city, or the morning air at sunrise over Piazzale Michelangelo... these moment matter but it is not these moments that matter most but how I felt in these moments and sharing them with three of the most incredible human beings. Of which whom I would not know if it were not for Florence.
Thank you, Florence, the city that helped me learn more about myself and life in just six weeks than I ever learned throughout my whole life. Thank you for giving me memories that bring feelings that I could not get anywhere else. I may not remember every sunset and sunrise, the sound of the bell tower, or where my favorite coffee shop is. But I'll always have pure happiness and be filled with life when I think of you.
