The Life of a Nomad in Firenze

"Chi sei tu?"

"Mi chiamo Sharon."

"Che fai?"

"Studio bambino psicologia e dramma e pre-medicina."

"Quanti anni hai?"

"Ho 20 anni."

"Di dove sei?"

"....."

The dreaded question, "Where are you from?" You would think that after two years of college life, I would be more prepared to answer this question that has plagued me since Welcome Week of freshman year. And still, with each new person who asks me the inevitable, I still have yet to come up with a brilliant response that properly explains my situation. Along with my seemingly ambiguous concentration in Gallatin (something to do with child development and drama, maybe"drama therapy," but I'm on the pre-med track, if the above dialogue didn't compute...), where I call home is also a bit ambiguous. I'm tempted to leave it at "I'm not from anywhere at all. I'm actually a modern day nomad. In fact, I have no home." But how unsatisfying is that? So now that I am at the risk of sounding quite long-winded, I shall quell your curiosity and explain why I consider myself a nomad.

My dad has been in the US Army for the last 23 years, cementing my life as a military brat from birth. Not quite as fascinating as I was making it out to be, but a good conversation starter. Of course that answer begs the question, "So where have you lived?" Born in Georgia (USA, not the country), I've lived in South Korea, New Jersey, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington (state), Germany, and Virginia, ranging anywhere from 6 months up to 3 years. After graduating high school in Virginia, I moved up to NYC where I could possibly start considering as "home"... The day after I graduated, my parents actually moved again to South Korea and right before my sophomore year, they moved to Hawaii where they are currently (probably for another year or so). Hence, my difficulty in stating exactly where "home" is.

Deciding to study abroad during college was easy. Ever since I had heard about "study abroad," I knew that my first semester junior year was settled; I would be somewhere out of the country. Honestly, I couldn't imagine being in one place for a whole four years! (I become a bit antsy to move on at about 1 1/2 to 2 years... what I affectionately call "the nomad itch.")

So why Florence? Aside from all the fantastic stories I had always heard about Italy and my love of Europe and its culture (Germany was awesome and I never was able to explore Italy at all), the ultimate decision actually hinged on the classes. For the interests I had, no other site offered courses that I really felt compelled to take. This was before I decided to go pre-med... Now there's a whole mid-college crisis I won't get into right now...But now having been here for 3 weeks, I must say, I am quite happy with what may be my last real semester of "fun and freedom" before returning to NYU to tackle all those pre-med req's that I'm way behind on.I'm definitely grateful for the chance to satisfy my itch here in Europe and perhaps to contemplate a little more about how I really feel about my nomadic existence. Hopefully, this blog will allow some of those musings to come forth in writing. Til next time, Ciao!