Gli Uccelli

As I was in my apartment at Meredith, finally going through all of my Sansepolcro belongings, I stopped to to listen to the the birds (gli uccelli) outside of my window singing in the early morning.  Hearing their sweet voices instantly brought me back to my last morning of waking  up in Tuscany. 

Each morning in Sansepolcro, the birds would sing with a sweet melody of greetings.  It always made it cheerful and easy to get out of bed and seize a new day in Italia.  But as I lay in bed that last morning, knowing I would have to say my goodbyes to Sansepolcro in just three hours, I realized something was different in the birds' voices.  I had never heard them sing so loudly...it was almost deafening.  It was much more than simple greetings escaping their little beaks.  I felt as if they were all telling me a bittersweet goodbye.  It was as if they knew I must leave, yet they were pleading me to stay.  I felt torn.  But hearing them on that last morning reminded me of what my time in Sansepolcro had given me.  Sansepolcro, and Italia as a whole, gave me a fresh look onto life, it gave me freedom...it gave me wings.

So, like the beautiful and sweet birds that sang outside of the window that last morning, I knew I had the  ability to fly and soar anywhere I pleased: I finally had wings.

"Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give away beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings."
-Victor Hugo