Trapped In The Margins

My life has taken a strange turn over the past five years. I began university at a school that I believed would be the only place for me. I was SO wrong. That university ended up being the worst place for me despite the fact that I met some great people. I ended up transferring to a college that was the perfect place for me. I have truly grown up there and it’s one of a few places that makes me truly happy.

My time at my college has been the most amazing period of my life so far. I may not have crazy college stories like most of my friends but it doesn’t matter to me. The point of crazy college stories is to recall of the good times that one had. My stories aren’t about college parties, hooking up, breaking up, etc. My stories are about people and their individual histories. My college experience allowed me to meet people from all walks of life. Think Humans of New York but without pictures. I’ve meet individuals that happen to be homeless, people that are severely or mentally disabled (I have a problem with this term but that’s another story), the elderly, first generation children of legal and illegal immigrants, people from the LGBTQ community, people that work at the United Nations, and everyone in between. 

I have been able to visit some pretty interesting places including Harvard University, Philadelphia, Columbia University, parts of The UK, Guatemala, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Spain, and now Ecuador. This has taken place in the span of three years. Traveling opened my eyes to the immensity of our world. And again, I was able to share my experiences with some pretty quirky people. I met a Canadian guy named August in Boston, a line dancing, cheese loving girl from Wisconsin in London, an EMT from Virginia in Italy, a talkative Cali girl by way of Colorado in Italy, and countless others. Their stories made my laugh, cry, roll my eyes, and feel countless emotions at once.

The point of this post is to prove that I didn’t know that transferring schools would be the best decision that I ever made. I still don’t know what my future holds. 

However,  I do know three things. 

My mind is always in New York.

My heart is still in Siena, Italy.

My body is currently in Ecuador.