Three Days on the Santa Croce Steps!

Day One     

            So ever since the first night I sat on the steps of the Santa Croce, it has become one of my favorite places. There is never a dull night on these steps. What still blows my mind is the fact that people are drinking on church steps. Crazy! Tonight it’s not as crowded as usually but then again it is only 10 o’clock. It seems different tonight I think there are more young Italians than ever before. Usually, I see more Americans around but tonight I only see one or two which is quite shocking. Oh no. Here comes the African man with his crazy bright lite up toys. No, I don’t want any. No, I don’t speak Italian. No, I’m not from Africa. No, I’m not from Senegal, I’m American. Ciao! Same thing over and over again. I move up a few steps (sitting on the bottom gets you noticed too much). As I move up, I bump into an empty wine bottle just left on the steps. I move it to the side but then I notice all the other empty cups and bottles around me. All I can think of is the tourists who are going to see this in the morning. I still can’t believe Italians come here almost every night just to hang out with friends and drink. They look like young high school students or college students but I really cannot tell. So there is the guy sitting next to me who keeps looking at me I think he could be thirty years old with his tight blue polo and grey pants. Oh my god! He just smiled at me. I think it’s time for me to move again. Ah, much better. Now I can think and observe better, wait that was a lie. Here comes another African man to bother but this one does not have any crazy knickknacks. Oh no, same conversation. Crazy Men!!

Day Two

Its 8:30 a.m. and the steps of the Santa Croce are clean! It is unbelievable! Well, cleaner than they were last night. When do they clean them? How do they clean them and who cleans them? They are like sneaky ninjas. I remember once being out here until almost 5 a.m. and never seeing anyone. Hmm...one day I’m going to have to stay up all night and catch them. Everything is so quiet this morning and there is barely anything open. Not many tourists around, only some store owners and vendors being to open up shop. I love the silence! I love just sitting here and being able to actually relax and not worry about somebody walking up to me asking me if I speak Italian or if I’m from Africa. It’s just this peaceful bliss that I can truly enjoy. I should wake up every morning to this lovely quietness but then again I’ll probably miss the noise my neighbors make every morning. Well, time to go make breakfast. I’m so hungry.

Day Three

12 noon. The Santa Croce at noon is crazy. So many tourists, it’s seriously scary but it’s more frustrating than anything. It took me almost ten minutes just to reach the steps because of these Asian tourists all crowded at the end of my street. The real question is will they ever go away? I have the strange feeling that the answer to that question is no. Now I really see why the Italians live outside the city center. Having to deal with the crowds and crowds of tourists each and every day is annoying. I’m sitting on the steps next to an old couple who look like they are tired from all the walking they have been doing. It makes me wonder what they do for a living, what made them come to Italy and where they off are to next? As much as they irritate me they also fascinate me. I know it sounds strange but it’s true. Just sitting here wondering why all these people are here and why? I would love to learn their stories. Oh no. Here comes another African trying to sell me a painting. Will they ever stop bothering me? I doubt it but I think it is time to go. Ciao for now!

My Fall Break in Greece!!

          The shutter of the camera opens, I look through the lens to see a blurry picture, and I adjust the focus with the zoom in and out buttons of the camera. I see a good picture but it does not look right. I try to adjust the angle then I look through the lens again but it still does not seem right. I move from where I am standing to see if it is just the ambient light and I look through. I almost have it all have to do is change the background and there…perfect. I look through the lens again and I see a clear picture of myself sitting on the shore of Corfu, Greece letting the slight breeze blow through my hair and letting the sun’s gently rays kiss my skin. I sit on that beach and watch the waves move toward me beckoning me to join them then retreat back into their sea home which only reminded me of my own home.  As I look around through the lens, I see the Mediterranean Sea in all its vast glory staring back at me and I think never in a million years would I have thought that I would be standing on a beach looking out onto a sea and not my own ocean. It is standing on this shore that everything hits me all at once. I am here. I have made one of my life long dreams come true. 

I hear the click of the camera meaning the picture is ready to be taken, I press the button, it flashes and I find myself stuck in a moment. When I was sixteen years old walking home from school one day I made a promise to myself and the promise was that I was going to see another country because I wanted to see something other than America. Don’t get me wrong, I love America but it’s not the only thing in this world and I wanted to see something different. I wanted to see a real authentic culture not the ones that had been readapted to suit the American lifestyle. So it was right then and there walking down the street to my house that I decided I was leaving America. I had no idea how I was going to do it but all that I knew is that I was going and nothing was going to stop me.…I change the shutter speed.

The camera readjusts to focus upon a new picture of me walking down marble steps, making sure my I do not slip on my pink toga, as the smell of traditional Greek food hits my nostrils. I can feel my mouth begin to water and my stomach grumble as I walked into the nightclub/serving area. I take a seat amongst friends joining the vast sea of pink togas who are enjoying the pumped up atmosphere. Laughter is coming from every table and I know that I was meant to be here in this moment…the camera goes out of focus.

Then it refocuses on the same image…Maya Angelou once said “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” It was right in this moment sitting at this mahogany table amongst friends that I realized that this was one of those moments that I would never forget. I know that ten years when I looked back at my time in Greece it would be this moment that I remembered because it is in this moment that I felt the most at peace with myself. I had not one thought of worry or fear but just of happiness…The picture develops quickly and the shutter jams for a brief moment.

The picture needs to be readjusted slightly for what I see is not the picture I want to capture. The picture I want to capture is not just of me but of everyone in this moment because moments like this only come once in a lifetime. Life was never meant to be lived in the shadows but it was meant to be lived in the sun. It was my mom who gave me the courage I needed to face different obstacles because she showed me what happens when a person is always leading instead of following. She gave me the opportunity to try things I never even imagined I would be doing and helped me see the person I really was. She is the person who allowed me to take that step in my life to capture this image.

Now, having the camera shutter close only to reopen up upon a new picture with no need to adjust the focus because the focus is right, the moment is right for it is the picture in which my life begins. It is a moment of me walking the Greece shore and being waved at by my friends from the Pink Palace balcony. The image of me on that beach is a picture that was miles away from my old self, miles away from the person who could never face her own picture until now.