It is strange to think that this adventure has come to an end: by now I had started calling Nykøbing home, but instead here I am back in Italy! The feeling that outweighs a thousand others I think is gratitude, toward all the people who made my experience possible and those who helped turn it into a memory to preserve and protect.
In retrospect, nine months was the perfect amount of time; I don’t think I would have lived this incredible adventure to the fullest if I had stayed longer or returned earlier. My last month in Denmark was less busy than the beginning, partly because I was in Italy during Kulturfabrikken’s most important festival, and partly because I preferred to focus on what I learned and what I will instead have to work on to improve myself personally and professionally, rather than starting new activities. I won’t hide the fact that during the same period I also had to deal with a personal issue that helped to take my head and heart away from the project, but this made me reflect (once again) on how life "happens" without us always being in control of it, and indeed, finding a way to live in the present together with our difficulties is a duty also to ourselves first and foremost - and it is even easier (and nicer!) if we remember that "I am the only person who will always be with me until the end": I think it puts everything back into perspective.
This is another reason why, if I had to choose one word to describe my last Danish period, I would use "people." I did my best to show those close to me that I was grateful for their presence in my life; knowing that I had little time left to spend with the skaters I tried to have fun with them when they passed through Kultur, and I organized a movie night with and for them; in mid-August my parents came to visit me and I showed them the places that I now felt belonged to me; I made time to share with those who meant a lot to me and whom I would not see again for a while. Among the many things Denmark has taught me, however, is my need to spend time with myself: in my last ten days I traveled to and around Copenhagen and other towns on the island of Lolland-Falster to visit museums and get lost in the streets, enjoying my own company alone: the memory of those days is among the happiest I have.
I still ended my stay with a bang by attending my last concert in Kulturfabrikken, this time as a guest, with many of my Danish and international friends, and then continued the party in the apartment I was sharing with the other Italian volunteer, Soumia. We talked until dawn and then I slept just that half hour to make it to the airport without risking not understanding where I was going or losing my (too many) luggage on the way. I said goodbye to my friends with the promise that I would be back, and in the time between the end of the project and the writing of this blog I have already picked up flights to stop by and say goodbye in December!
Taking back my "old life" was both reassuring and alienating at the same time: on the one hand I knew where I was going back to, but on the other hand I now seem to perceive reality differently, and I know that I will do my best to bring what I learned about myself in Denmark into my new everyday life.Among many things, surely also the desire to expand my circle of international friends and explore some more of Europe through the countless Erasmus initiatives for young people :)
One of the goals I had set for myself before I left was to return with more awareness of what I wanted to do in the future. Today, however, I recognize that I have surpassed an even higher goal: I have realized who I want to be. And once again, this is just the beginning.
