It’s insane to think that this time exactly one year ago I was boarding a plane by myself for the first time, about to leave North America for the first time, and about to dive headfirst into one of the best years of my life.

As soon as I started attending college fairs in high school and receiving numerous brochures from teachers and advisors I looked for two things in a potential university: a location that wasn’t too far or close to home and study abroad programs. I started attending a university in 2013 and I wasn’t ready to declare a major but I was already meeting with study abroad advisors to make sure I did whatever I had to in order to study abroad before I graduated college.

Fast forward to my junior year of college, exactly one year ago today, and I was on my way to Florence, Italy to spend two semesters studying fashion merchandising. I still remember the first adventure of navigating various airports on my own, my excitement when the plane landed in Florence, my taxi driver dropping me off at the wrong address and the stress of trying to find my apartment with the help of strangers who spoke little english. There I was, standing in front of old apartment buildings and nowhere in sight was the number on the piece of paper the school had given me. I dragged my two huge suitcases behind me on the cobblestone streets, almost having a panic attack. The wheels on my suitcases were making so much noise that echoed between the old buildings on the narrow roads and got me a lot of stares and I realize that all I could do was take a deep breath and approach an old man who was having  a heated discussion with a young boy and hope they spoke English. “Scusa!” I asked, and pointed at the address on my piece of paper and asked where (my Italian at the time was very advanced, obviously). Thankfully they understood and they pointed me in the right direction, turns out I was right around the corner but cars were not allowed on the road outside my apartment. When I reached my apartment I opened the front door and found myself in a narrow, dark stairwell, lit only by a small skylight. All of the steps were different sizes and each flight was more or less steep than the last. As much as I hated dragging my heavy suitcases up the stairs, I was already in love with the character of Florence. At my front door one of my roommates opened the door and immediately rushed to help me with my last suitcase and the rest of the year was history.

But fast forward to today and I had no idea what was to come from the next nine months and all of the amazing experiences I would have. Every so often I will be posting throwback posts on this blog as a way to relive some of my favorite moments from my year abroad. Such as, getting lost numerous times when I traveled on my own to London, struggling to communicate in a language I sucked at speaking, meeting people from all over the world who I still keep in contact with, exploring new cities and islands, eating way too much gelato (and then realizing you can never actually have too much gelato), my first tattoo, and many more events that have brought me to where I am today. Moving 5,000 miles away from my family, my boyfriend at the time, and my best friend was the most difficult part but it taught me so much and I will never second guess leaving my comfort zone again.

I expected Italy would be full of adventures and experiences but I never expected to leave a piece of myself behind. I miss it everyday and so I think all there is left to do now is plan my next big adventure and make sure it takes me back.