TRAVELING:                           


   Sights. There are so many of them to see. From the Statue of Liberty in New York to The Eiffel Tower in Paris. The world is chock full o' different landmarks, people, lifestyles, and languages. Although this is the case, I can't help but feel that I have a dreadfully limited view of the world. There's an Italian phrase that sums it up pretty well: "Tutto ciò che visto è ne so." This basically translates to "All I've seen is all I know." It does my eighteen years of existence a lot of justice. Quite frankly, I am far from the travel-savvy type. Heck, I've only ever been to FIVE of the fifty states in America: New York (obviously), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Maryland, in that order. Even then, I can barely count 3 of those listed 5, as I was only there for a mere matter of days and I don't feel I've quite earned the right to proudly say "Yup, been there. Seen it. Loved it."
My woefully non-existent sense of cosmopolitanism is quite unsettling. I want to get out and not just see the world, but EXPERIENCE it.
     For starters, I should mention that I have a bit of a bucket list for places I would desperately like to travel to, which are all in accordance to my many ethnic backgrounds. Y'see, I'm what they call a "mutt," so in order to visit all of the places that correspond with my backgrounds, I would have to travel to Ponce (Puerto Rico), Venice (Italy), Nice (France), and Kyoto (Japan). Yes, I am fully aware that I am an odd mix, although I appear to be nothing more than a slovenly, Americanized Italian teenage boy. It's also pretty awkward that I have all of these wondrous heritages tied to my bloodline, yet I can literally ONLY speak English. My Spanish and Italian are terrible, as the Procreator never found it necessary to keep traditions alive. I crave exposure. My horizons are in desperate need of broadening. For once, I'd like to be able to live out an adventure like Eat, Pray, Love, y'know, just minus the Oprah's Bestseller stamp and nix the Julia Roberts. There are so many walks of life and ways of thinking that I have yet to encounter. I just need to really get out there and breathe it all in. But I assure you, for the meantime, I'll start with the baby steps. I'll experiment with the City of Bears and Bricks. On my campus alone, there are quite literally DOZENS of locations that I have yet to thoroughly appreciate. My complacency stems from the droll, routine ways of my daily life. Time to switch it up a bit. Who knows? Maybe I'll run up my Frequent Walker Miles.