Ciao tutti!
Allora, mi chiamo Tyler e sarò il vostro residente artista.
As much as I would love to write this entire blog in Italian, I think for both of our benefits it’s probably for the best that I refrain…At least for the time being.
So let me tell you a little bit about myself before I chronicle the next few months in Rome. I come from a very small town out in the middle of nowhere in southwest Florida, called Punta Gorda. I’ve got an older brother and younger sister, two really small really hyperactive dogs and two extremely supportive parents. Back when I was applying to colleges one of the most important things for me was to be able to study abroad; you see, because I’m a first generation college student, the only information that I was able to get on the subject was from TV shows and second hand stories from my friends’ older siblings.
As clearly jaded as I was, I kept an optimistic outlook for my future while in college. I was really fortunate to get accepted to Cornell, primarily because the last time a person from my high school got accepted into the university was 5 years prior to my own, so I thought my chances were slim-to-none.
I’ll just skip the first year, in short it was fantastic, eye-opening and freeing.
Last year I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend my spring semester in the AAP New York City program, and I can honestly say that it was the most fun I ever had…well, until now. It was really the first time I was able to live on my own, without much help from school and my parents. But now that I’m about 5500 miles away, being free is such an understatement. I’m living in an apartment with 4 other art majors, about a 15 minute walk away from all the studios, and I’m living in ITALY!!!!
How often do you talk to someone and they say “Oh yea, I spent 4 and a half months in Italy, and I got to go travel to Venice, Naples, Tuscany….etc”? Never. So I had to take it upon myself to be that person in conversations.
But in all seriousness, it’s been one of the greatest changes in my life, and I’m the happiest I have ever been. The food is fantastic, the buildings are beautiful and the history is just something you can’t forget while you’re strolling down one of the many cobblestone streets. The students this semester have the opportunity to study architecture or art, travel to monumentally historic locations you only get to read in textbooks and see online, and for a short time, be a part of something bigger than themselves. I’ve only been here since the 3rd of August, but Rome has already started to become a part of me that I will never forget.
So that’s me in a very abbreviated nutshell, and if you’re reading this and have any questions or comments, feel free to shoot them our way and one of us bloggers will be more than happy to respond.
A Presto.
-Tyler Williams