Em in Rome: Il Romano Compleanno! (My Roman Birthday and thoughts on life)

In the last few weeks before I left the US, I had countless people ask me the same question: "Are you excited?" Of course, I gave the obvious answer: "Yes!"

Excited for food, art, and history. Excited for architecture, culture, and traveling.

Excited to be alone.

Last year, a friend shared with me a book by a brilliant psychologist named Dr. Nathaniel Branden. He writes about personal development, life, and self-esteem. He says in order to be happy, we must know what makes us happy. As obvious as that sounds, it's not easy.

In order to know what makes us happy, we have to fully and consciously understand ourselves. And in order to do that, we must confront ourselves alone. We must know who we are when we are isolated from our friends and family, from our hobbies and past times, from our culture and our identities.

So here I am. The American without her country, the student without her university, the friend without her friends, the swimmer without her pool, the yogi without her mat. It's just me. And what I am discovering and confirming every day is that I love who I am and who I am becoming.

Turning 20 in this state was one of the most incredible and humbling experiences I've ever had.

I have grown up in what I think is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I have learned to spell 'Baccalaureate'. I have flown high in the sky and breathed underwater.

I am gratefully and blissfully in awe of life and everything that comes with it.

But constantly being in this state is not living. With the incredible inventions of phones and the internet, I can never be alone for long and we need to appreciate the subjective experience too.

Yesterday the Roman Apartment Gods gave me a relatively warm shower that I very much enjoyed. When I got out, my iPod was dinging with birthday wishes on my Facebook. The doorbell rang I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers. My phone went off with a wonderful call from my mom. And at night I got hugs from my wonderful friends here in Rome.

We went to a restaurant called MoMo Republic for dinner. It was very neat and the food was incredible. I forgot my camera, but here are some photos from their website. I had Caprese Salad, Spaghetti alla Carbonara, and Tenerezza di Cioccolato Caldo (very fancy chocolate lava cake). It was AMAZING!