The Beginning: I’m Just a Girl
Imagine this: you’re a girl from Arkansas, and the first time you moved more than 30 miles from home was to Italy’s capital city, Rome. In 2019, only 1% of students at the University of Arkansas were studying abroad. If you have found my page and decided to dig a little deeper, you’ll be happy to know that as of 2023, that percentage has risen to 8%.
Those five short months in Rome in 2019 forever altered the lens through which I see the world. It was in the Eternal City that I began to understand how people truly connect with the world around them. In return, how it gifts you with the kind of friendships and memories that leave you yearning for more. Being in Rome was the first time in my life I slowed down and genuinely took in the place and the people around me. Much that was due in part to the Italian lifestyle of embracing slowing down to enjoy food, wine, the weather and the company you share it with. It was the first time I was in school full-time without juggling a part-time job. The hours I once spent working at a grim college restaurant were replaced with wandering Rome’s history-woven cobble stones, observing a culture that has since become integral to how I live my life today.
Someone asked me recently how I started traveling so unapologetically. Now, I understand that it is a vital part of my DNA that I cannot and will not live without. In 2019, I had youth and freedom on my side, propelling me toward the unknown. But I’ll be the first to admit that my car ride from Fiumicino Airport to the neighborhood of Prati was not the Italy I had dreamt of. I had never been to a city large enough to stop and think that real, complex, authentic life is also lived there too. Panic swelled in my stomach, and I began to doubt if my instincts to come to Rome had deceived me.
On May 6, 2019 I wrote in my journal:
“This once entirely foreign place has become a home for me in the most unexpected ways. Before Rome, I never had the desire to live in a big city. Before Rome, I did not realize the importance of genuine relationships.”
I can say with absolute certainty that my instincts did not deceive me. No not everything was glamorous, being an immigrant in a different country is incredibly difficult, but cultivating a life away from the familiar was both the most arduous and most beautiful thing I’ve ever done. Lived experience and saying yes to the unfamiliar has give me with the most precious gifts I have in this life, and ultimately has led me here to share my travels with you.
Travels with Miss Worldwide may have quietly begun when I was 20 years old, but only now do I truly understand the power of connection that she wields.
