Student Bloggers

Hi! My name is Becca and I’m a Junior at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. I’m a Creative Writing major, which is a very fancy way of saying I reject the notion of job security. To make my parents a little less nervous about letting me follow my dreams, I am also minoring in History and Gender Studies. (But don’t let that fool you—mostly I’m writing novellas about dragons.)

As an 'Air Force Brat', I got the opportunity to live the life of a rolling stone from infancy—thus far, I’ve lived in eight states, fourteen houses, and gone to ten different schools. But at heart, I’m a Honolulu girl. My family got stationed in Hawaii when I was ten, and despite numerous house and school changes, I got the privilege of staying there until I went to college. For that, I chose Indiana University: where the student population is big, but the cornfields are BIGGER. Now, its time for another adventure! This time I’m off to a new country, a new time zone, and—perhaps the scariest of all—a new language. But every day I get inspired thinking about what Rome will be like! As a student of art, aspiring novelist, and halfway-hippie, I’m not sure I could have picked a better destination.

Here are a couple of things I’m doing in preparation: staying on the lookout for a good pair of walking shoes, trying to drink less soda (I’ve heard that soda is much more expensive in Europe!), and watching The Godfather over and over (and over) again. That’s not to say I don’t do that last one all the time anyway, but I’ll be headed off to Italy soon so now it has significance. I’ve also been trying to stay on top of my planning and organizing by writing lists. I’ve got lists for packing, lists for traveling, lists for things to not bring to the airport (why do I always try to pack dry shampoo in my carry on?), lists for things to remember, lists for things I have to do before I leave, the list—my God, another one!—of lists goes on and on. The one included in the picture above is my favorite one to add to. It’s the bucket list for Rome, the most exciting list by far! It’s got some standard items like “visit the Keats House”, “eat gelato on the Spanish Steps”, and “make a wish at the Trevi Fountain”, but there are some specialty items that I’ve added. Some highlights are:

• Take a selfie with a Swiss Guard
• Flirt with a Sicilian—if all goes well I could have romance a’la Michael Corleone, but hopefully with fewer car bombs!
• Be in a crowd that is blessed by the Pope
• Stand in the presence of at least ten different paintings that are each at least 500 years old
• Make a Bastille joke while actually in Pompeii
• Drink from a Roman water fountain (you know, the kind where you have to plug to hole with your hand and it shoots water at you?) without spraying yourself in the face

With a little less than two weeks until I leave, the mood as of now is: scared, but excited. Like the feeling you get before you ride a roller coaster you’ve been waiting in line for all day. But also like the feeling you get when its your turn to give a presentation and you just realized you have to fart (like, really really bad). I’m the most excited I’ve ever been, but the dark side to nervous energy doesn’t always smell like a bed of roses.