Leaving your comfort zone can be humbling

by Mark Ramos

Leaving your comfort zone is challenging and can be humbling when you stumble on what people would deem to be relatively simple such as buying a bus ticket. Just ask three of my friends who boarded a bus to the wrong destination on our two days off from class on Friday. I say that humbly because while I was in Rome I rode a bus from the Vatican through the city only to return back to where I started an hour later. The mistake I made was I caught the bus on the wrong side of the street. I eventually made it back to my hotel fifteen minutes later after picking up passengers from the Vatican. The ladies who rode the wrong bus eventually made the trip to their destination after making the adjustments they needed in order to be successful.

Being in Italy has been worth the trip to learn and experience the culture first hand. Understandably, I have felt anxiety of going out on the town and trying to communicate with the locals. I have learned that going to the store for groceries or to a restaurant for a meal can be a nerve wracking when your Italian is limited. The experience made me think about how others feel when they have been put into a similar experience traveling abroad or moving to a new country. The nice part is the Italian people understand our situation as study abroad students and are helpful to work with us.

The opportunity that I have had to travel through the country and speaking to the local population has been difficult, but there is a sense of accomplishment when I am successful. I would definitely recommend the Cagli Project to graduate and under graduate students who have the tenacity to face the trial by fire and learn first hand about leadership and communication in Italy. However, I was surprised to learn that I am the only student from Leadership. Out of the sixteen in our class, I am the only member from LeadershiP, which means I am swarmed by Communication students. They are amazing people.