During my stay here in Italy, I have had the chance to meet a million wonderful people. For my Travel Writing class, we were given an assignment to interview someone of our choice. The only stipulation was that they could not be from the States or have lived there. After mentally going through all the people I have met and the friends I have made while abroad, the one person who stuck out the most to me is my friend, Melania. Melania is a native of Italy and goes to the Italian boarding school where I currently study. We met when she came to sit in on a few of my classes and have been friends ever since. She's only seventeen, but like me, she has an old soul. We connected instantly and I knew from there on out that we would be friends forever. I could think of no one better to interview and write about.
For this piece, I tried to find a common theme between the youth in Italy and the youth in America. Although there are some similarities, youth in Italy is quite different than the youth we find in America. I found a lot of similarities with Melania because of my Italian roots, but I think you may find some interesting connections to her life as well. Below is a copy of my piece written about Melania and our journey through a two hour interview. Enjoy!
Finding Heart in the Home of Melania Zen
Growing up, the world always seemed a bit too small. I went to school with the same people I lived next door to since I was born; it always felt like I was trapped inside a bubble I could not pop. When it came time to go away to college, my parents always reminded me that “home is where the heart is.” Truth be told, I never really took the time to discover what that phrase meant. I took what I had for granted. It was not until I met Melania Zen, my first Italian friend in Italy, that I realized the true meaning behind that very statement. Through her eyes, her words, and her experiences, she has taught me the beauty behind the youth in Italy – a youth that starts and matures at home.
At only seventeen years old, Melania glows. Her deep brown eyes sparkle with youth and her bouncy chestnut hair glitters beneath the sunlight. She has a youthful laugh, one natural and untainted with fear or sadness. Her down-to-earth attitude and warm presence naturally draws me to befriend her. Although she is much younger than I, age seems to be nothing but a number. Talking with Melania is comfortable, enjoyable, and inspiring. Above all, her youthfulness is what fascinates me the most. As we sit and chat for a while, I begin to realize that the secret ingredient to her glow is not hard to discover.
Melania comes from a small family of four. She has one younger sister, Emily, and lives with her parents in a small village of San Zenone, Italy. “We’ve always been a close family,” Melania explains, “and we are always doing a lot of traveling together” (Zen). With her dad in business, Melania and her family have traveled to numerous countries, such as: Switzerland, Austria, China, Australia, Poland, Greece, America, and Norway. Picking up my jaw from the floor, Melania giggles. For her, traveling is a way of life; she was on a plane when she was only four days old. “I guess it’s just something we do,” she shrugs (Zen). Intrigued, I ask her to tell me more about family traditions.
“Every Sunday, we go to my grandma’s house for dinner,” Melania explains (Zen). All of the family comes together for this special meal every Sunday, a tradition created long before Melania was born. Her grandmother prepares authentic Italian dishes that could keep armies full for days afterward. “She makes all kinds of things: pasta, meat, risotto, sometimes French fries, or my favorite…apples over the fire,” she says (Zen). Her grandmother typically does not make much dessert, but the one thing Melania cannot resist is strudel. “My aunt owns a pastry shop,” Melania explains, “So sometimes she brings extra pastries to the house for dessert. If she has strudel, I just love it” (Zen). As she explains to me more about her traditional Sunday dinner, I am reminded of all the Sunday family dinners I enjoyed growing up and the same tradition I had with my Italian family. We exchange stories, giggling as we tell tales of our grandmothers force feeding us extra food when our stomachs are about to burst. As we reminisce together, I realize that the Sunday dinner tradition is about more than just food; rather, it is a place to bond with those that brought us to life and to grow in the rich tradition with those we love and cherish the most.
I ask Melania to tell me about the other things that define her. Naturally, she begins talking about her friends. From the beginning of her childhood, Melania met a number of young girls like herself around her neighborhood. “We have lived next to each other for seventeen years,” Melania says, “and it’s just now that we can consider ourselves best friends” (Zen). There are many reasons why friendships in Italy last so long; it is because they take time to develop. Melania goes to Instituto Filippin, whereas the rest of her best friends go to other schools. She has made a life of new friends here at Instituto Filippin, but she assures me that her best friends from home are the ones that will last a lifetime. On the weekends, Melania spends at least one night with her best friends from home. “A lot of times we will go to Bassano or go hang out at a couple of pubs,” Melania describes, “But some nights we just stay at one of our houses and hang out” (Zen). As I inquire about the youth night life in Italy, Melania describes that her and her friends love hanging out at pubs because “you can meet the world…no one is the same there” (Zen). Whenever she has the choice, Melania always prefers to be spending time with her friends from her hometown. Without hesitation, Melania can trust these people. “In a friend, I need honesty and loyalty; I need to know someone will say what they actually think,” Melania tells me (Zen). For her, her best friends do exactly that; in fact, they do it for each other. Since birth, these girls seem to have been linked together by some beautiful force. They began their lives together and have continued to grow ever since. Once again, I notice a theme with this beautiful youth. What we find at home can lead us to the heart of beautiful relationships.
On any given weekend in an open field in San Zenone, Italy, you will find Melania with her two dogs. “It was originally supposed to be an office for my Dad…but eventually, it just became a weekend house,” Melania explains (Zen). This place is where she spends her weekends, her holidays, and her summers. Her two dogs, a female golden retriever and a male mut, are her loyal sidekicks. She goes up to the house every weekend to take care of them, but the house also serves an entirely different purpose; a purpose more carefree than any other experience Melania has described yet. When I ask her about how she spends her time, a smile glows from her face. “Sometimes, I just take my dogs and we go walking and playing through the woods,” she explains (Zen). There is no set agenda – the days and night simply pass, each day bringing a new sunrise and sunset.
At night during the winter months, Melania’s favorite thing to pass the time is building a fire outside and making hot tea. Simply relaxing and enjoying the moment for what it is gives her a peace of mind. “Ever since I was little I always wanted a dog, but my parents never let me have one,” Melania explains (Zen). It was not until she passed her secondary school exam that her parents decided to give in. “My dad told me we were just going to look at photographs of dogs, but that I couldn’t get one,” Melania explains (Zen). With her eyes filling up with tears, she continues, “But when we got to the place, there were no pictures of dogs. There were just these two dogs sitting there waiting for me to take them home. It was beautiful” (Zen). With her two new companions, Melania’s life at her weekend house began. This new home is where she spends her time, bonding with her pets as well as nature. Her young heart and youthful spirit explore here, unknowingly growing with each night the fire burns.
When I was growing up, the future always seemed to be a distant memory I never felt I had to worry about. As I asked Melania about her dreams of the future, her eyes weld up with tears. She is silent in this moment, but her eyes speak for her. “I think about it, yes,” is all she is able to get out before the tears begin streaming down her face (Zen). I reach for her hand and she takes it. I asked her what she pictures when she thinks about the future. She smiles, tears still trickling down her face, and she replies, “My family is here. I cannot leave. I see myself married. But all I want is just to be happy” (Zen). As she says this, a flush of emotions come over me. Growing up in America, the future is all about job security, making money, and being able to start a family. With Melania, however, I discovered something entirely new – a life that begins, matures, loves, and dies at home. To Melania, it does not matter that she will most likely be in the same town as she is now in twenty years; for her, home is where the heart is.
Meeting someone you can instantly see the potential in is quite possibly one of the most amazing feelings to ever experience. With Melania, I was instantly drawn to her for her potential; with some people, you can feel it, see it, believe it -- all before they even have the chance to prove it to you. Perhaps it is a bit of myself that I found in her that drew me so naturally to befriend her. Even before knowing a single detail of her youth, I knew Melania had a good heart. After interviewing her on a deeper, more personal level, I have realized that the beauty of that heart comes from the same beauty found in her home. When I look back at the simple phrase “home is where the heart is” that my parents have parroted to me each time I set out on a new adventure, I realize that it is entirely true. For both Melania and myself, home is the one place where you can learn, grow, love, and mature without ever having to question who is along for the ride. With our big Italian families behind us, our great hometown friends, and our free, youthful spirits, home is never very far. Home is indeed the key ingredient to a forever youthful, happy future.
Interview citation (APA):
M. Zen, personal communication, 8 March 2011.
M. Zen, personal communication, 8 March 2011.
A picture of Melania :)
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