What I miss

Reflecting back on the trip, and what I miss about Italy, there are many things I could list. And what I would like to take from the trip could number greatly as well. We were discussing this on the boat to Ostia Antica, when my nose was getting burnt. It blistered.

I said that the one thing that I would miss the most about Italy was the Italian attitude about life. How they value family and relationships over money. How everything seems to move slower and be more relaxed. How they seem to take more time to spend time with people, and how this is valued and not frowned upon. I have found that this really is the thing I miss most about Italy. I do miss the food, and the incredible architecture, and just the whole place; too many things to list, really. But if I had to boil it down, I would say that what I miss most are the values of the Italians. I don't know that I would jump to say that they are superior to American values, but I do think that they are of equal importance. Americans have so many stress-related health problems that I'm sure stem from our hectic lifestyles and the emphasis that we're placing on the bottom line of profit.


I personally believe that all the success in the world, the perfect grades, the perfect job, etc., don't really matter if you haven't enjoyed the process to get there. You have to have a balance. It can't be healthy to be stressed out all of the time, to be locked in a room, by yourself doing work. I think you have to balance that out with spending time with people and building relationships. When we look back on life, isn't that what we want to remember, the people we spent it with rather than the homework we did?

I think that's the most important thing that I learned while I was in Italy. You have to take time to enjoy what you're doing or it's really not worth doing at all. I want to be able to look back on my life and see the positive things. I want to make as much of my life as positive as I can. So if that means taking time from work to have fun with people. then so be it, because I think that in the long run that is probably more beneficial.