A View from the Hungarian Quarter – Rome

 I am currently sitting on a private balcony at my hotel in the Hungarian Quarter of Rome, enjoying a glass of wine after over 20 hours of travel. A short power nap and a great local Roman dinner next to the hotel have helped me settle in.

Tomorrow, we leave by train for Venice to begin a seven-day cruise through the Adriatic. I’m completely disconnected from media and the internet. After almost two hours trying to connect through the hotel Wi-Fi, I gave up. So, I’m partying like it’s 1999 with a good old Microsoft Word document and spellcheck. I’ll return to this and edit it for my blog when I’m less sleep-deprived.

In the distance, I see rain drifting over hills or mountains. The evening is filled with the sounds of gliding birds and a nearby family enjoying their dinner on a multilevel terrace.

Back home, I’ll be stepping into some big shoes. A beloved colleague and incredible educator is retiring, and I’ve been asked to carry on her legacy. Before I left, she gave me two gifts, each 20 euros, to enjoy during my three-week stay abroad.

Tonight, I spent the first gift: 18 euros on a bottle of Chardonnay, with two euros left over for access to public toilets as I stumble through the side streets of Europe (TMI, I know). The second gift will be spent on shore during the cruise.

I share this not to boast, but to celebrate that life is full of transitions which I choose to embrace the journey. While I often prefer to be the Captain of the ship, knowing every detail in advance, this trip and this new chapter in my career I'm simply going along for the ride, engaging fully with those around me.

This fall, in addition to my new responsibilities at work, I’ll also return to the classroom as an adjunct professor in the Education Department teaching two evenings a week and on Saturdays. I’m looking forward to meeting students who are balancing multiple responsibilities in pursuit of a college degree. It’s an honor to be part of their journey.

In today’s world, locally, nationally, and globally we’re facing profound crises and deep divisions that distance us from our shared humanity. I try to stand as a bridge, a connector. Guided by my Christian faith and my study of Benedictine spirituality, I return again to the reminder to “Welcome the stranger as Christ.”

As I continue this media-free journey for the next three weeks fully aware of the mounting tensions between Israel, Iran, the USA, Russia, and Ukraine. I will eventually return to my own corner of the earth: Acres Homes, Aldine, Houston, Texas. There, I will breathe life into students who are the future.

While others tune into daily headlines dominated by 80-year-old politicians who believe they know it all, I choose to invest my career in 15- to 18-year-old students earning college degree while in high school....Young people are forever the future and will shape a better world...I am here to guide and listen 

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