Moving on

In the past two weeks I have been reminded of just why our experience in Roma was so wonderful. You see, several of Bill's students, my classmates, and our friends from the Roma class of 2005 are moving on.

Rachel Williams was in town a couple of Saturdays ago. She is headed off (again) to LeMans, France, for a year. In the picture below, Bill grills hamburgers while Laura Glass, Rachel Williams, and Sarah LaBauve (left to right) mug for the camera.



Now it doesn't take much to entertain these girls. Flipping deccas and catching them in mid-air is sufficient entertainment!



This activity reminds me of Billy in Roma when he decided to stack random objects on each other. As I recall, I was busy in the living room trying to create a light box with a lamp and a glass top table. Billy was far more successful in his endeavor that evening than I.



Yesterday morning, Megan Turner defended her honors thesis. Afterwards, her parents, her boyfriend, Eliran, two good friends from Bolivia celebrated the occasion at Common Grounds; Bill was the only faculty member in attendance.



Yesterday afternoon, Bill and I returned to the Dickson Street area to join Laura and Sarah for a drink. The occasion that prompted this get-together is that Sarah is leaving at the end of the week to begin a master's degree in English at Boston University.



Here's Sarah above and Laura, below.



Seeing so many of our Roma friends at this time of year makes me a little wistful, not only for their immanent departures, but for the humanities program in Roma. This is the time of year when students would have been finalizing their plans for a semester in Roma. However, this is the first fall in many years that the Fulbright College is not sending any students. This makes me sad. I firmly believe that the Rome Program for the Humanities provided our students with not only an education that cannot be duplicated on the campus here, but also with a nurturing environment that built enough confidence and self-reliance to encourage students to venture out into the world on their own after their Roma experience.

Both of Bill's classes, the group from 2005 and the other from 2008, look to us to provide opportunities for the them to reconnect. That's really quite a privilege, I think, that young adults actually invite us to their events, call us to meet them for coffee when they're in town with their families, and ask us to host pot-luck dinners for them as a group.

Bill and I have been quite blessed to have been part of the Roma classes of 2005 and 2008. While students from 2005 are moving on, those from last year already have expressed an interest in getting together this fall. We have a lot of catching up to do.

Hopefully one day, we can share again that special bond of being citizens of Roma with university students.