When I look back at my time at John Cabot University, I feel amazed that it all really happened. While of course I haven't forgotten my college years, sometimes it seems like it was too good to be true.
But then, I'll meet up with old JCU friends, or someone will ask me about my life in Rome, and the memories will come flooding back. And I will think to myself, and realize...hey all of that really did happen.
There are so many vivid aspects that stand out to me when I remember Rome.
But every time I reminisce, different things will come to mind. Sometimes I'll pass by an Italian restaurant, and the smell of fresh pizza will take me back to the wonderful meals spent with friends or the quick and delicious food I would eat on my way to class.
Other times I'll find myself in an overly-crowded European city, and I will immediately miss the dynamic and chaotic little streets and alleys full of classmates and locals in Trastevere. And sometimes I'll go out for an ice cream treat, and even if it's good, I won't be able to help myself from comparing it to the delicious gelato I would have almost every day.
And every now and then I'll hear someone speaking Italian, and I will fondly remember my Italian class from my freshman year at JCU. I will think back to my kind professor and to the language that surrounded me day in and day out in my loving host country.
I think that's what gets you about living in Rome. You don't realize at the time how much every tiny little detail will stay with for the years to come. But as you graduate, and move on with your life, you will take your education--John Cabot--with you. With that comes your experience, the people you met, the things you learned, and of course the city you lived in.
Alexa Vujaklija (Shearer)
Class of 2015
Communications major
Grew up in the United States, Germany, the Republic of Georgia, Russia, and Bulgaria