Rinaldo's Cafe
Our Time in Rome
Tracy Cosgriff University of California, Davis
At the beginning of the year, I recounted Michelangelo's words to consider the beauty of Rome and the unique opportunities of living an studying abroad. Now, as we come to face teh close of our semester at the Rome Center, I would again like to ponder the wisdom of the great artistic master as an instrument by which to reflect upon our stay.
Concerning his sculptural genius and the act of the artistic creation, Michelangelo remarked: "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." As if touched by the chisel of some paramount giant, we have emerged as angels from stone. Each experience parallels the strike of a sculptor in fashioning a complex and dynamic form from a simple and unassuming block. What takes form after such experiences represents a new and more fully developed individual, seasoned by the trials, errors and successes of immersion in a foreign culture. When we first began our venture over three months ago, we could hardly fathom the lifelong changes our journey would come to incite. Each encounter or experience, like a sculptor wielding his mighty hammer, has slowly chipped away the cold and uncertain exterior to reveal the depths of the spirit and the beauty that dwell within. When we campaigned through Europe like leaders and generals of the past, indulged in Rome's historic quarters, and left our own marks among those of the emperors, the poets and prophets, we played the role of both artist and his creation. In embracing our opportunities abroad, we hurdled ourselves forward into a new and uncertain world that has profoundly shaped us at the core of our being. Also active as the artist, we commanded each blow of hammer and chisel, gradually revealing the self that stirs below. We have emerged as inspired men and women, molded by a new and insatiable thirst that only the experience of travel can quench. Like Pygmalion birthed Galatea from the cold and austere stone block, our time here at the Rome Cneter has challenged us to abandon our comforts and boundaries, to relinquish our familiar masks in unparalleled metamorphosis. In each student breathes a new determination to consider and examine who we are and, more importantly, who we are becoming. Though only a small fraction our lives, our time in Rome will without doubt epitomize the greatest and most transformational time to be experienced.
As in any act of creation, the time spent at the John Felice Rome Center has become one of meditation, of contemplation, of self-examination, and of maturation. The young men and women molded by the Rome Center carry with them their journey as another dimension and definition of their being. When we return home after our study abroad, we will bear with us the traits of dynamism and integrity, as Michelangelo's angels, carved from the marble and set free.
