Less Than One Month!!!

It’s funny how fast time can be – we’ve almost reached the end of summer! All of my life I have waited in anticipation, almost to the point of dancing like I have to use the restroom, until summer would come and relieve all the pressures life can hurl at us. I knew this year it would be different. Between waiting to hear about my acceptance to the program and getting everything ready for my long awaited departure such as my visa (it came back yesterday! I’m legally allowed to live in Italy now!), electronics (just got a new camera!), and travel supplies (tested the new backpack with Dad going up the Summerland Trail on Mount Rainier), it has been a summer full of things to do.

Before I go on to tell of all the great things I have been able to do this summer and all of the future adventures I will elaborate on, I would like to take a moment and explain when my journey to Italy all began. In the summer between seventh and eighth grade my dad and I went on one of our annual camping trips, this time up to Banff, Canada. As we were crossing Eastern Washington Dad thought it would be a cool idea to stop by some Jesuit school with a funny sounding name. I thought that this would be a complete waste of time because I felt like I had the rest of my life to figure out where to go to school, and that was way too far off in the distance! Anyways, as we pulled up and started on the tour (where I was indeed the youngest by a few years), our tour guide was telling us about the study abroad program in Italy that he had just returned from. Needless to say I was jazzed about this program and decided then and there that I was going to attend that little private Jesuit school with a funny name, Gonzaga University. I never really thought of attending other schools because the more I got to know about GU, the more I loved it. But always in the back of my mind I knew the real reason I would go there was to experience Gonzaga-in-Florence or GIF as it is so often referred to. Now here we are only one month away from my departure, from a dream I grasped on to in seventh grade and refused to let go of.

One of the major things I had to do this summer was make money and lots of it. I searched for a job all of my spring break and turned up with nothing. I then got a tip about a job working for King County and went after it. Low and behold, I landed the job helping youth find work experience through the county. I’ve met a lot of great people through this work experience and it’s helped me reach some financial goals I had at the beginning of the summer.

Another huge thing for me this summer has been the gym. I decided near the beginning of the summer that I would attempt a triathlon. Nearly every single day I finished with work and would spend about two hours swimming, biking, or running, but most days it was some kind of combination of the three. Through this rigorous exercise routine I have lost weight, improved endurance, and nearly reached my goal. I will be participating in the Lake Samish Triathlon in Bellingham where I will swim 400 yards, bike 14.75 miles, and run a 5k (about 3.5 miles). I’m super nervous, but I will let you know how it goes on Saturday when I finish!

To conclude, I’m just really, really, REALLY excited about ending this summer. I’m giddy when I think of all the fun my classmates and I are about to have and all the lessons in school and in life that I will learn, or be forced to learn. But until that plane takes off on September fifth at 1:50 PM, in service from Seattle/Tacoma International Airport to Charles de Gaulle and eventually to Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome, I have to take things one day at a time.