January 4, 2023

America, you’re weird, and wildly wonderful too 🇺🇸

It has been well over 10 years since I left my home country and moved to a new one.

Nothing more American than packing up your bags and seeking a better life, right?

In 2022, I officially got my Italian citizenship 🇮🇹

So now I’m a girl with two countries.

But America is still such a BIG part of me. I see it in nations my habits and how I approach life, I see it in my family and my friends and all the sweet little moments I get to *appreciate* so much more now that I don’t live here.

I’ve always been fascinated by identity and culture and roots (and leaving them behind, too).

I find it fascinating how Americans tend to think we don’t have culture, we don’t have an accent, we tend to think we are the standard and the rest of the world tries to keep up.

We’re not wrong // we’re not right.

I could get into the stuff that I find icky: misogyny, racism, insane capitalism and buying culture, a two-party political system, 32 oz. soft drinks, grocery carts filled to the brim with pre-packaged meals and Mountain Dew under the guise of ‘convenience’.

But there’s also so much good: nature everywhere, national parks, this incredible resilience and belief in change, diversity, the friendliest people, apple pie, convenience, and for me— the sweet comfort of my roots.

When I first arrive here (every. single. time.) I’m always overwhelmed by how much weird there is. And then I get used to it, a week passes, I remember my origins, I feel home.

And perhaps this is what this whole musing is about:

2022 was the year I became Italian and the year I felt more ‘me’ than I ever have before.

The first six months of this year I was grappling between two places, the second six were spent fully accepting and embracing both, rather than feeling the urgency of choice.

Sometimes the answer to choice is both. And if you’re stuck between things perhaps that’s something worth holding onto— whatever the choices might be.