I was in the middle of the street with nowhere to go and no one to call. I had walked home with an empty purse, my phone was dead and I was surrounded by strangers in the heart of Florence, Italy.
I was the humiliated victim of a pickpocket. The girl who has to go back to Keene and tell the sad tale to next semester study away students of being silly enough to bring her whole wallet out to the bar. The girl the audience snickers at and whispers to their friend, “Who would be foolish enough to do that? That won’t happen to me.” Which, of course, is exactly what I said to myself. “That won’t happen to me.”
But it did. My sense of security had been stripped from me. Even after all the pep talks from my parents and the warnings of other students. Nothing could have prepared me for something that you barely have control over. Since being here, I have been in many situations where it seems there are no more open doors. Although these moments have taken the best out of me, I come out of them with a better perspective of the situation than I had before.
Nothing can prepare you for studying abroad, no matter how much you save up, study the language, or research on blogs. The change of culture came like a tsunami, crashing into me, tumbling and rolling and forcing me to grow the heck up.
After my wallet was stolen, I called the bar I had been at that night. They did not speak English, and they laughed at me before hanging up while I was trying to give them my name and number. The woman at the police station didn’t speak English either, and she tried spelling out everything she said to me. The only person who could help me was myself.
Studying abroad forces you to look at the world in a completely different way. Everything you thought you knew is questioned. When you are put in these types of situations you learn more about the life that goes on outside the United States. When I went to a store the hours posted said that it would be open at that time, but I found out the next day when I returned that the owner just didn’t feel like coming in. That would never happen in the United States!
It is perceived as rude to ask for a coffee to go at the cafes because Italians cherish their time to hang out and chat while they have a morning coffee. I am still not accustomed to the changes that I face here, and being homesick is more like a yearning to do what is comfortable and what I know is safe.
Living in another country takes you completely out of your comfort zone, more than going to college in another state could ever do. It gives you a chance to appreciate what else is out there, and the little things you’re leaving back at home, like bagels or an iced coffee with a caramel swirl, or people speaking the same language as you no matter where you go. But it is something that everyone in her life should do at some point as a way of encountering adulthood.
Credit cards can be canceled and replaced, money is just paper, but no one can take away the adventures we conquer.
Mackenzie Travers can be contacted at
mtravers@keene-equinox.com