Written by Global Gap Fellow Oscar Rouse
October 13th, 2025
As I prepare myself to leave for the first leg of my gap year travels tomorrow, I find that more of my thoughts are taken up by what I’m leaving behind than what I am embarking towards. My bag is packed, my flight is booked, hostel reservations made, and only now is it starting to sink in that I’m actually saying goodbye for the next 7-8 months. Goodbye to my family: Mom, Dad, Alma, Lia. We’ll facetime and I’ll send them care packages from Sicily once I arrive, but we know it’s not the same as eating dinner together every night or tickling Lia on the couch until she giggles: “Stop bubba!” Goodbye to the Blue Ridge mountains that have swaddled me as long as I can remember, goodbye to the friends who stopped in today to give me one last hug and a few well-wishes. We joke about buying Ferraris and being able to drink in Italy, but it’s tinged with a bit of sadness knowing we won’t be sharing that time with each other. I know they’ll still be here when I get back, but it won’t be the same, and neither will I. It’s scary to move out, but so freeing at the same time.
I spent an hour today just clicking around google street view in Paternò, the small Sicilian town at the base of Mount Etna where I’ll be living for the next two months. I could already see myself walking down the street to get a coffee at the small cafe on the corner or hiking up the mountain to discover what lies below Etna’s volcanic peak. I am so excited to see this new place, to be somewhere with fresh eyes and new people, but I know I’ll miss the folks I’m leaving back home as well. Will the people I meet in Italy welcome me like my grandparents do every time I step in the door? Will the trees turn orange this time of year like they do at home? Do they even celebrate Halloween in Sicily? The questions are endless. But that’s the wonderful part of travel, is it not? To put yourself out there, take a chance on the world and accept that we don’t have all the answers, but we can try our best to answer them if we just give it a shot and get out there…at least that’s what I’m telling myself. So that’s what I’m doing tomorrow, sad and scared and so very excited all at once, just getting out there. After all, as the Italians say, “Non c’e rosa senza spine.”
(attached is a picture of my house)