Everyone is young once. Like those of you who decided to stay in Chicago for College and for those of you who chose to come to another country to study, I have done the same. There is a part of me that was afraid to leave and a part of me that had to get away. These two parts have battled for many years and probably always will.
At 18, my parents wanted me to go to college, period, no exceptions or excuses allowed. I resisted. I had graduated a year early and had no immediate plans to attend college, though I knew eventually, I wasn't actually very creative or talented at anything other than school. However, I was determined to prove to them that going to college at all would be my decision and not theirs.
After they kicked me out of the house over this issue, I moved in with my grandmother and aunt in Palatine. It didn't take too long for me to make up my mind. There were no jobs at my grandmother's business, so I got a job at the local K Mart. After working at K mart for about a month, I decided my parents were right. The K Mart doesn't pay much and I worked with people who were born in the suburbs, were raised in the suburbs and would probably breathe their final breath in the Kmart checkout line with the yellow light flashing for a price check. There was no way I could live my life like that. By December, I applied and was accepted to UIC.
When I got to UIC, I registered for the usual classes and didn't really understand that I had some choices. For the first semester I made two conscious choices in my schedule; French and Anthropolgy. I was otherwise stuck with requirements, Algebra, English, and Biology, all of which were just boring.
By my sophomore year I had settled in and classes were good, but I wanted so badly to get away from my home town. I found a study abroad program to the Sorbonne and applied and was accepted. After that my whole world changed. Studying abroad is truly the best thing I have ever done. One year in Paris opened my eyes to the world. I worked as an aupair because I was not rich. It's a long story but it didn't work out well and I was fired by December. My grades were so so but just being in a different country and learning about different perspectives on the world was worth all the culture shock I experienced.
After that, I decided to study Italian. Having come from an Italian American family it seemed that it was time to learn the family language that my father had never bothered to learn and that my grandmother had forgotten most of as she arrived in the US at the age of 13. I applied to the Italian Institute of Culture for a scholarship and was sent to Rome after graduation from UIC. I was only 22 and seriously still immature.
When I returned, I thought hospitality is what I should do, so I got a job in a hotel thinking with French and Italian, I could make a way for myself at the front desk. I never got the front desk job. I spent two years working in room service. It was fun and I loved the people I worked with, but it was clearly no long term career.
Frustrated by the age of 25, I decided to pursue a long time "boyfriend" in Australia. I saved my money and flew to Sydney. I didn't see much of Sydney as we quickly drove across the outback to the small town of Adelaide.
Basically, I was in Adelaide for six months with nothing to do and no plan other than being there. The town was so small that I saw most of it in a week. I flew to Tasmania to see a friend I had met in Italy and on one of our many trips back and forth to Sydney we covered the entire coastline between Sydney and Adelaide.
In Adelaide, I decided I needed to do something and I called up every school in the phonebook to see if they wanted a volunteer to teach French. No one did. However, I called one school and one lady told me that at her school they taught English and I should come and see the school. It turned out to be a program for new Australian immigrants. I became an ESL teacher. I loved my students. They were from China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Russia, Turkey and so many other countries.
In conclusion, life may take you many places before you find out who you really are. After my visa expired I came back to Chicago and spent many years dedicating my life to students in Adult Education, Elementary school, and in college. I got two Master's degrees so that I could become the best ESL teacher in the world. I'm sure I'm not the best but teaching ESL is now all I am and all I do. This path has been a long one. In retrospect, I suppose most young people don't know what they want to do at 19. Young people don't know what they want to do at 19. They still don't necessarily know at 22. Where will you be at 25? at 27? at 40? You don't want or need to know. No one can chase destiny. It just happens.
