The reality of Italy

I did it.

I bought the ticket that I have longed for, dreamed about, sought after, and desired above all else.

I am going to Italy.

The other week, I was sitting in my car eating a McDonalds McFlurry ice cream sundae in the middle of the snow-covered town of Sinking Spring. I was just sitting there eating cold ice cream on a cold, dark night, watching the cars pass by intermittently as the stop lights went from red to green. I had made a joke with the drive through guy that he must think im psychotic, ordering ice cream right after its been like negative degrees and snowing the past two days. He had just laughed.

So as I ate, I thought. I had just prayed a 9-day novena for my decision of whether to go to Patagonia or not. On the 8th day, I got a call from the manager saying that they unfortunately had to withdrawl their invitation to come down because they were filled to capacity with the interns there already. What an answer. It made my mind up fast. So, I wasn't headed there. I wasn't headed anywhere fast except to my second home of the Olive Garden in a few hours come morning. But as I licked the chocolate off my plastic spoon, I decided that that was okay with me. There was a reason I wasn't going to Chile right now. Something else was headed my way, and I knew it was in God's hand. I was okay with it, and so so happy to finally at least 'know' what I was doing. Or, in the present case, not doing.

And tonight I booked a ticket for Italy. I will be in Italy for a month. For the first week, and old housemate from when I studied abroad in Perugia will be going back to Perugia with me to relive old walks, embrace remembered friends, and create new memories. After she leaves, I will be there another 3 weeks. My good friend, Aby, has graciously opened his extra room in his house to me. I don't really have set plans for my whole time there. And I am actually ok with that. I just need to find 'me' again. I feel like part of me has been missing for a long time. When I lived there, not that it was all peaches and cream, but I felt alive, vibrant, joyful, and me. I've really missed all of that for a long time now. What I would like to do while I am in Italy, aside from being with friends I've missed for 2 years now, is go on the few job interviews I've set up so far, meet up with Franciscan's group in Gaming's Rome/ Assisi pilgrimage and have a mini-pilgrimage myself, and to visit some other places I feel called to go see- such as Pier Giorgio's tomb, and where St. Rita of Cascia was from, along with Bl. Columba of Rieti, and stay in a few monasteries. Also, I may visit my German friend in Munich, which would be wonderful. Other than that rough outline, I just want to live. I want to go where I feel God wants me to be, and meet the people He wants me to, and hopefully set up a job for in the Fall. We'll see.

So, that's my update on life so far. It's very surreal to me that I will be back in Perugia in 2 weeks. When I think about it I freak out, just a bit. I'm so excited.

Ci vediamo a presto.

A new time for life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! 2009 here we come!!!!!

It's a new year and I simply cannot wait for the potential that it holds. Unbeknown discoveries, fulfilled dreams, enticing affairs... a wholly-new slate for each person to do whatever they want with it! Yet, adversely, it's all what one wishes to make of something that determines its worth.

I, for one, have fantastic expectations for this year. I aspire to make it grand. I hope to follow what God is leading me towards in life- in the little things that all combine to create who "Laura Monica Ross" is. It's my first year as a college graduate. Time to delve into greatness!

I missed many people on New Year's Eve. I was with fantastic friends in Philadelphia, and we had a marvelous time, but little pieces of my heart are peppered throughout the world like sections of a popcorn path. It doesn't make for a whole me, but that's ok. I guess it's all in the realm of what it means to love others. They always take a piece of you with them.

My New Year's Resolution?
---To live each day.

Yep, that's what it is. It might sound like a cop-out, but it's not. That resolution has a deep meaning for me. It encompasses being positive about life and difficulties and situations, it means taking advantage of every opportunity that comes my way and yet not taking advantage of anyone, it means being present in the moment and not in yesterday or tomorrow, it means being unafraid, it means being open to everything and not writing anything off, it means listening with my heart to my Heavenly Father, and especially it means loving.

It'll be hard. I'll forget my resolution, as I know I have already. Hopefully I'll bounce back often.

I think no one encompasses my resolution more than one of my favorite writers: Thoreau.

"I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."~Henry David Thoreau

Amen!