Me ♦

Me playing with Iranian food.
Courtesy of Ramin Ghanbari.

Hello there.
I'm a twenty-something years old woman in search of answers. Despite all the fuss I make about being more than what my nationality entails, I've come to cherish immensely the fact that my passport says Republic of Italy. This has allowed me to travel, live and learn other dimensions with an ease that wouldn't be possible with other headlines, so I am profoundly grateful and aware of the luck of being born on the right side of the border.

My journey began almost eight years ago. In 2009 I left to study one year in China as an exchange student with AFS. I wouldn't be myself or anywhere I've been without it. My personal growth began the night I came back and told my parents I wanted to spend my fourth year of high school abroad. Two weeks in and - hey presto! I was set to leave for China.

When I came back, you guessed it - bye mom, bye dad! After graduation I am off again. I did my BA in Leeds, and MA in Belfast, focusing on the features, roots and outcomes of conflict. Meanwhile I've worked and volunteered in many other countries, with local or international organisations, and I've come to consider Europe as my home. When I left at 16, the main cliche reason for me to pack and go was the necessity to escape a place I could not call home. Eight years in, I've come to understand that there is no escaping - only hard work and dedication to make the place you live in somewhere worth to be called home.

So I am here, working day by day at the micro level to do the little I can to turn my Europe in a place worth living in - a place of inclusion, understanding, and tolerance. The place that our generation is dreaming about.