The City of Love

Here's a little story that I haven't told you yet....

In the fall of 2004, I studied abroad in Florence, Italy. I made the decision to leave on a whim...literally. It was the last month of my junior year in college and I had finally left a long, sometimes wonderful, but emotionally damaging relationship and had just started quasi-dating Aaron. Because of the emotionally damaging relationship (and other slacker tendencies) my grades were terrible, I was having issues with my roommates, I was tired of cheerleading, and the only thing I could make a firm decision about was the fact that I had to get out of the country.

I went online and started looking at universities overseas...I saw a few that looked interesting, but the one that really caught my eye was the Lorenzo de Medici University in Firenze, Italy. And I actually had a good enough grade point average to get in. So, I immediately filled out the application and signed up for classes. Thankfully I have the most wonderful parents in the whole world...When I told them my plan of studying abroad - they were all for it. Looking back on it, I don't really think they bought my story about the wondrous learning experiences I was going to take part in during my time abroad... I think they just wanted me to get away from loser ex-boyfriend and get myself back on track. Most parents would have signed their child up for counseling or some other form of emotional support, but mine thought it would be better to just send me overseas. And guess what it worked! ( they also did a very similar thing to my sister when she was going through a rough time last year...except she went to Boston - ha ha I got the better deal!).

In addition to my plans to study in Florence, I had also signed up for a two month summer mission trip to a very remote village in China to teach English at a small university. Yep, so I was pretty much saying goodbye to life in the USA and hello to life abroad. I would finish my junior year, leave for China May 22, come back mid-July, and head to Italy mid-August. Oh and I didn't know a single person on either trip. The mission trip ended up being amazing (I'll save that story for later) and when I got back, I was all ready for Italy!

Except for one minute detail...while I was in China a handsome, loving, funny, intelligent, and athletic boy had been emailing me. Yep, you guessed it - A$. His emails were never super long or super passionate, but they always let me know that he was thinking about me and counting down the days until I got back. In fact, when I finally did come home, he was the one who picked me up from the airport. (He drove 6 hours from Amarillo just to pick me up) The one month I was at home that summer was like whirlwind. Aaron and I saw each other every second that we could. Finally it came time for me to leave for Italy....

Aaron and I had been make-out buddies all through college. I know that term might turn some of you off, but hey its the facts. We both really liked kissing and we were crazily attracted to each other (note: when I say "make out" I mean kissing only!). Even though we had such a great "buddy" relationship...I was always a little hesitant to make it anything more. I had several totally legit reasons for this: I had my emotionally damaging off/on again boyfriend, Aaron hung out with a party crowd, I was a little scared of how much he liked me, ect. Then I had my totally non legit reasons: Aaron was shorter than me.... and that's about it. When we finally started actually dating my junior year, I was more than a little scared about the whole situation. I mean I had my ex-boyfriend to think about, Aaron was shorter than me, I didn't really know any of Aaron's friends but I'd heard bad reports about ALL of them, and all sorts of other relationship damaging ideas floating through my head.

But that summer...EVERYTHING was different. We started to get to know each other without so much of the kissing (which we still did every now and then ;) So when it came time for me to leave, we had a lot to talk about. Were we going to do the whole long distance thing, or should we take a break and see how we felt when I came home in 5 months? Now the conversation we had that day is pretty hazy in my mind. I remember that I had driven up to Waco to see Aaron and we were laying on the couch in his apartment...But I am very unsure of what exactly was said. I think I'm so unsure because Aaron and I walked away from that conversation with very different opinions on our relationship status was going to be while I was in Italy. In my mind, we were going to be "apart", but sweet Aaron thought that we were still going to be "together."

Oh how those two little words "apart" and "together" can make all the difference in the world. I was sure that we'd agreed on apart...at least I'd agreed on it in my own mind. I wanted the freedom to explore Italia in all its glory. I wasn't sure what that meant for me exactly, but I knew I wanted it. Freedom has always been something that I've craved...and so of course I wanted it on my grand adventure overseas. Aaron, on the other hand, want us to stay together. He loved me (and had since nearly the beginning of our make-out buddy days). He was willing to wait for me during the 5 months I was gone and he even wanted to come visit me while I was there. Even though I'm sure that we talked and talked about all of these issues, we both walked away with totally separate ideas and.....

that is where the story ends for today folks. Tune in tomorrow for part two.