by Siena Adducci
Rome, Italy. My new home for the next 4 years. If freshman, sophomore, or even junior Siena heard about this decision, she wouldn’t believe it for a second. I always pictured myself somewhere on the East Coast, going to college and living out a traditional and peaceful college life. But that’s the funny thing about dreams – you can never really wish them away. The dream of studying ancient history in Rome always came back to me and I couldn’t seem to let it go.
I am the child of avid travelers and ever since I was little I have grown up going with them on their many adventures. Whether that be digging for dinosaurs in Wyoming, climbing a glacier in Iceland, or taking a cruise down the river Thames in London, we would always go out of our way to explore and create new experiences and this is where my love for archeology and history came from.
I have been to Italy twice in my life and every time I have touched down it has felt like home. Maybe it’s in my Italian genes, or maybe it is just the history in the stones of the streets. Everything that I was studying for so long at Providence Academy, came to life before me in a brand new way. The Roman Forum wasn’t just a picture in a book anymore, it was a timeless labyrinth of old streets and temples that dared me to wonder what it was truly like to live here in ancient times. The Colosseum wasn’t just an arena, it became a live storybook to both historians and architects alike. Rome itself wasn’t just a pretty city to me by the end of my travels, it felt like a home that I needed to get back to in order to explore it’s pulsing culture, it’s bloody history, it’s still beating heart.
I quickly started to realize that studying abroad for just a semester would never be enough for me. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to study at John Cabot University, an American University located in Rome. By being there, I will be able to study in the very place that Caesar and Marcus Aurelius roamed the streets. It also creates a very unique learning environment of multiple cultures as the staff and students are coming in from all over the world.
I plan to use my education not just for myself but to educate and teach others about the importance of the lives of the people before us and also the mindfulness we should have about our own legacy that we are leaving behind.
Leaving behind something so good as Minnesota, my high school, my culture and my family is admittedly very heart aching. But how lucky I am to have something that makes leaving so hard and that makes coming home so worthwhile. I do not know where this road will lead me or what adventures it will take me next, but I do know that I was born to Rome.
