All Roads Lead to Rome

I’m currently sitting on a couch in a small apartment in Tuscany, drinking tea and making bread. How did I get here? Don’t I live in Iceland? Yes, I do. But about a year ago, my husband and I decided we needed to make some changes. Somehow, those changes eventually brought me here.

Iceland has been a difficult place for me to live. I’m sure there are plenty of people who thrive there, but I haven’t always been one of them. At the same time, it has given me a lot that I didn’t expect. I’ve made some amazing friendships, found opportunities I probably wouldn’t have had elsewhere, and over the past four years, life there has gradually become easier. This year, I even managed to grow a successful garden—only to move to Italy for three months just as it was time to enjoy the potatoes. But that’s okay. It’s the journey, not the destination.

And this particular journey started about a year ago, when my husband and I realized that something needed to change. We could see some unpleasant and unwanted things on the horizon if we continued as we were. For me, part of that shift meant going back to school. I had been working with the art community in my small town in Iceland and wanted to better understand arts and culture management. So, to Rome Business School I went.

I joined an online international master's program with more than 80 people from every corner of the globe. And I mean that. I was in class with people from Argentina, the UAE, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Oman, South Africa, Greece, Denmark, Egypt, Ukraine, and so many other places. I expected to learn about arts and culture management, and I did, but what I didn’t expect was how much my classmates would change the way I looked at the world.

Before I started school, I had developed a pretty bleak outlook. Wars, famine, prejudice, racism, religious conflict; every terrible thing happening seemed to make up my Instagram feed every day. I am a traveller, and I know the world isn't horrible, but when that is what you see over and over again, it becomes very easy to believe that people don’t like each other very much.

But guess what? The world isn’t a horrible place; we don’t all hate each other, and humans are capable of incredible, unrelenting kindness. I had the wonderful privilege of experiencing that throughout the past year with my classmates. We bonded over our education, supported each other through political conflicts happening in our respective countries, shared funny memes and quotes, and lifted each other up during presentations and projects. We met at workshops, broke bread together, had drinks, celebrated together, and, in the end, shared the incredible achievement of reaching our educational goals.

What struck me most was that we did all of this while coming from different countries, religious backgrounds, cultures, family structures, sexualities, and who knows what else. We were kind to each other, and it wasn’t hard. We learned from each other, and it wasn’t hard. We took care of each other during times of hardship, when someone didn’t understand something, or when someone was simply confused, and it wasn’t hard. There were disagreements, of course, but we seemed to resolve them respectfully, and that wasn’t hard either.

Calling it a life-changing experience doesn’t quite do it justice. It rearranged something in me, or maybe reminded me of something I forgot. I've always found the best in people, and I know people are capable of many great things. I think along the way, I was lost to the darkness in the world, which has been easy to do lately. I’m incredibly grateful that this amalgamation of beautiful people from around the globe, some of whom I may never meet in real life, reminded me.

I think you have to leave room for that. You have to give people the opportunity to prove you wrong and make some space for hope to come back in. I never thought going to business school would change my perspective on the world, but it did. It also changed the way I think about making a difference. We often imagine changing the world through big moments and big actions, and yes, those matter. But so do the smaller things: a week-long workshop, a year-long online course, 80 people showing up from different places around the globe. Those things create connections and friendships across borders, and we carry some part of what we’ve learned from one another back into our own lives, professions, families, and communities. Those small connections create ripples too, like micro diplomacy.

That has given me more hope for the world than I’ve had in a long time. Not because everything is suddenly okay, but because I know amazing people are out there working toward something more beautiful and more just. I know because I’ve met some of them.

So now I’m in Italy for three months, sitting on a couch in Tuscany, drinking tea, making bread, and wondering what comes next. A year ago, I thought I was going back to school to learn more about arts and culture. I did that, but somewhere along the way I also found a little bit of my faith in people again.

There’s an old saying that all roads lead to Rome. For me, Rome was a jumping-off point. Sometimes changing your life doesn’t happen all at once. You make one decision, meet one person, say yes to one opportunity, and suddenly you’re somewhere you never expected to be. Now, I'm walking a path I never thought I would be on. It's exciting and scary, and a strange place to be in my mid-40s, but I'm here and feel prepared. Thank you to my family, friends, and classmates for this amazing new perspective. I'm so grateful!