If your character doesn’t change when you’re abroad, then you’re not really abroad at all.

After a few weeks in Italy, I’ve come to see that traveling is like when opposites attract, such as something cold and something warm: At least one of them needs to change so their temperatures even out.

But a student visiting Florence is like an ice cube being put against the sun. The city and its culture are so strong that there’s no chance of it changing just because a few students visit. So either you need to take in all the change while visiting, or you end up distancing yourself from what Florence has to offer.

And if you keep your distance, what’s the point of spending a semester anywhere outside the United States? That’s why, unless you’re changing quite a bit, you’re not making the most of your study abroad experience.

There are tons of examples I can give about how I’ve changed after just one month in Florence, like only watching movies in Italian when I’m bored. The biggest one, though, is Italian pride, which can be seen in so many different ways here and is something I’ve been trying to adopt.

Italian pride is most notable in how people dress. Even on warm days, adults always seem to wear formal, reserved outfits. When foreign students wear shorts and T-shirts, Italian men wear suits with jackets in the heat. They don’t even sweat — either out of being used to the heat or sheer force of will to not damage their nice clothes.

Italian pride is also seen in local bars and cafes. The food is always proudly on full display, with customers picking out exactly what they want. Going into a bar or pastry shop and not buying anything feels like you’re insulting the shop owners, saying that their food doesn’t meet your standards.

I can easily avoid offending someone’s pride by walking in less crowded areas or getting my meals from grocery stores. But like many people here, I’ve started to immerse myself in Italian pride.

It made me question my own pride, however, and wonder why it isn’t as strong. I began to re-evaluate what I prided in myself — how much pride I felt in how I carried myself, my career, my skills and eventually even my own philosophical and religious beliefs.

I kept seeing how confident Italian citizens were, and I wanted to feel that same confidence.

For a while, all I could feel was myself colliding with the culture, and I felt like that melting ice cube, overcome by my surroundings. But gradually, I could also feel myself settling, adjusting and becoming something that was different but still definitely me. Maybe even better. Who knows?

So for me, the true measures of your success abroad are how much your destination can change who you are, and how much of that change you can keep when you return home. It all rests on where you go and which destination hits your spirit the most. I was drawn to Florence because I’m a quarter Italian, and I was always drawn to the culture despite it being so different from my own in America.

The less I change while abroad, even after it’s all over, the less meaningful I’ll feel it was. So I want to take in as much as possible and carry it all back with me when I return to the states. After all, the changes in our character are truly the best souvenirs.

Max Antonucci is a junior newspaper and online journalism major. His column appears every Tuesday in Pulp. Visit his website at www.MaxwellAntonucci.com, find him on Twitter at @DigitalMaxToday or email him at [email protected].

Published on September 30, 2013 at 10:10 pm