My time in college is genuinely spent grinding. I would say one of my most significant character flaws is working too hard (future employers, I’m looking at you). Although that is kind of a joke, I do think there is some truth to my downfall: a usual inability to relax. I love to work and take challenging classes. I like to keep myself busy and occupied, to not miss any opportunities I have while in college. However, while picking my classes to study abroad, I was more interested in giving myself a break and learning things that might be stimulating in a different way.

The course catalog for my school, Florence University of the Arts, offered classes in Italian and International Communications and things like ceramics and film photography. So, while I was picking my classes, I decided to meet myself halfway. I took a class called Cultural Introduction with an Italian language component and another on the history of the Catholic Church in Italy (it’s called Saints and Sinners, and yes, it is really cool). But I also am in a class called the Art of Yoga and Meditation and another called Food, Wine, and the City Florentine Culture Walks. These two are not classes I would necessarily have access to in the United States. So while I still am enrolled in a full course load, for the first time in my life, I am not allowed to be overwhelmed with school. When one of your classes practices yoga twice a week, it’s hard to feel like there needs to be stress and pressure added to life.

I have this running joke with some of my friends from my program that our lives are fake here, but in reflection, I am living a more natural life in Florence. I have had to adjust to the slowness, whether in three-hour dinners or in the cafes I find to do my homework. In the fast-paced design we have in the United States collegiate system, it’s often easy to forget that we should live a life we find fulfillment. For different people, that means a lot of different things. But right now, I find a lot of stillness and peace in my Food, Wine, and the City Florentine Culture Walks. While living here for these past four months, I have found joy in sitting at dinner for hours or walking around the city I now call home aimlessly and without a destination in mind. Everyone who studies abroad will tell you it was a life-changing experience, and this is what is different for me. An adaptation to a life of slowness and contentment in the tiny things.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: CIS Abroad: Florence University of the Arts