Writing Assignment #4: Coming and Going

For me the philosophical question of nature versus nurture is not one that can be answered by one or the other, but rather they are complementary to one another. Using a metaphor in keeping with the components of this program I would describe nature as a block of marble uncut and unshaped but nonetheless containing inherent characteristics.  Nurture on the other is the sculptor; it will shape the marble but it cannot change white marble into say green nor can it dictate how the veins running through the marble will appear. This week's writing assignment deals with the concept of leaving a place and returning to find it feels different.  Given a long enough time frame it is possible that the location in question has in fact changed, however in most instances it is you that has changed. Travel is often an incredibly defining moment in one's life, it is only when we take our identity and place it in a position where it contrasts with something, that the opportunity for change presents itself. When we travel we take our identity and place it in a position where it contrasts with everything. In the previous sentence i say the opportunity for change very deliberately for change is not required in fact some contrasts may cause one to become even more resolute in their existing beliefs, as Samuel Johnson once commented on travel, "All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” To be frank a large part of why I choose to travel so much is directly linked to this phenomenon.  I have yet to even remotely figure out a plan for my life to say nothing of my indecision regarding an area of study.  I am searching and in some ways that search is in a very literal sense. I have this concept that at some point everything will just click and I'll know exactly what I want to do with my life; as time passes though I have come to realize just how naive of an idea that truly is.  In fact perhaps life works in a completely antithetical way, I remember when I was say 11 or 12 and there was not a doubt in my mind what I wanted to do when I grew up.  I was going to be an entrepreneur in case you were wondering, not that I had any idea what that entailed.  Nowadays being an entrepreneur is still a possibility for me but it has become clouded by all the logistics that never occurred to me, nor would they have mattered, when I was a child.  Before we are lost in tangential thoughts, allow me to ground these abstracts in recent, personal experience.  Obviously if you have navigated your way to this blog, or even if you are here by mistake and took the time to read the title of this blog, then you are aware that I am currently studying in Rome. What it will say on my transcript is that I studied Art History, Italian and Immigration and Emmigration while i was here in Rome.  While this is all true, were you to catch me in a particularly divulgent mood, as I apparently am right now, I would say that they are not the primary things I am studying. I am learning about myself.  For example, this trip has recently eclipsed my previous personal record for longest stay outside of the United States (not counting one particular outlier that I don't remember too well) and at this point I have a fairly good idea of what it is I miss most: Seattle coffee culture and the paragraph long orders that go along with  it, the English language and the deep bass my speakers produce, 24 hour grocery stores and Mexican food.  At the same time though there are things here in Italy that I have enjoyed becoming accustomed to, scarves, gelato, train rides, cobblestone, tomatoes.  You see Johnson's quote is deceptively black and white, he makes it seem as if a country you visit will be either a good or a bad experience, the reality is much greyer, in every country one visits, both sides of this coin will be there.  There will be some things you will be enraptured by and others that you would happily never undergo again, it is in finding out what falls in each category that identity is defined.