La Dolce Vita

The more I think about some hypothetical "Italian sweet life" the more I think about what I actually want to do with my life. Yes, I realize you might be thinking, you're almost 40, haven't you figured it out yet? You would think so, but it actually takes much more than graduating high school and setting off on some work path to determine this. It's pretty easy to figure out what you need to do, but what you really desire is more complicated. When I graduated high school I barely knew what I wanted to do and it changed every week. I knew I wanted to learn things and I knew I wanted to travel and see more of the world, but what was my calling? I liked learning about languages and other cultures, but did I really want to be a teacher? I wasn't sure.

Sometimes life informs you on what you want to do simply by putting events in your path that form you. I feel like the last few years have provided me with strange events that are leading me to an altruistic place I'm meant to go. First, I started volunteering with ORPL, and during my time volunteering, I encountered what I consider a life-changing experience. One day, upon processing the remains of a migrant with Operation ID, they brought in the descendant's personal belongings. I can hardly explain how surreal this moment felt. I had been looking at human remains and bones for months, but it never "hit me" until I saw these very personal things. They weren't particularly special, items of clothing really, but at that moment it just felt like it could be anyone I knew. I knew from examining the bones, some of which had not fused yet, that this individual was probably a teenager.

This remained at the front of my mind for weeks. I kept thinking about how bad something has to be for a parent to attempt to cross treacherous conditions with their child. My mind wandered everywhere, trying to contemplate what would make me take such a risk. How far would things have to get on a flimsy boat into the ocean, when I don't even know how to swim. These were things I never considered going about my life before.

Then I started learning about the migrant/refugee crisis in Italy as well and I realized this is a global problem. It is not going away. Little by little, it occurred to me that this is the area I want to work in. It was never explicitly clear to me before, but I have a real desire to help people. I think this is one of the more eye-opening things that has come out of my study abroad experience.