It's not what you think.Life is what we have to work with, and love is what we do with it.
If we are dead in our lives, uninspired or stuck, things can't move, we have no love and we have no light. This earthly experience is magnetic, pulling us in different directions and into worlds we couldn't have imagined, if we just open our hearts and decide to commit ourselves fully to life. It is the greatest relationship we will ever have.
And so, I quit my job, gave up my apartment in Brooklyn and sent eight and a half thousand dollars to Alma in the hopes that sommelier school would change my life. Or that Italy would change my life. Or both. Now why would I want to go and do a thing like that?
Here's the scoop ...
I'd been in a job that was lucrative, full of great travel and interesting people, most of whom unfortunately I had the opportunity to see for just a few weeks of the year on business trips. The rest of the work was sedentary, in front of a computer, on email and phone, and quite solitary. While I'd been doing well in this career for the past five years, there was something intrinsically missing in the day-to-day, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Something needed to give. I thought to myself, right, I'm in my early thirties with no attachments, nothing holding me back from catching a few more rainbows before settling down, and now is the time to do this.
Italy was the obvious choice. For some reason, italianos and I are like peas and carrots. There is an attraction, not altogether unlikely, after all I have an Italian-American grandfather and Italian cousins. Italy was the first place that I lived abroad (2001-2003, Rome). A lot has changed since then. No longer the naive, young girl of 24 looking to have an experience abroad 'while I still could', and before other big moments took place, most of which I might add haven't yet taken place; I am now a woman with stories and carefully folded dreams. Instead of staying in a vaguely glamorous job for security's sake, I decided it was time to unpack some of those dreams and chart a new course.
And now, for the facts:
From September 13th, I will be living in the town of Colorno, population 8,944. It is situated near the Po River in the Emilia-Romagna region, about ten kilometers from Parma, known for its Parmesan cheese and prosciutto. The most prestigious cooking school in Italy, Alma, La Scuola Internazionale di Cucina Italiana (the International School of Italian Cooking), is hosting the sommelier course at the Alma Wine Academy, a curiously English title for what is in essence a program taught exclusively in Italian. Never mind. Italians like to be seen as international, especially in regards to the English language. Anyone who has been to a makeup and perfume store known as a Beauty Point or an internet cafe otherwise called an Internet Point will know what I mean. It is irrelevant that 'point' is never used in the same fashion in English.
Tomorrow marks one month before my departure, but the journey has already begun, as the money leaves my bank (gulp), I finish the last weeks of work, pack my bags and start imagining how much things will change in the day-to-day, and hope for some divine providence along the way. We shall see what God has in store for me. In the meantime, I will continue to log the journey in this blog.
