A bottle of 2014 Nebbiolo d’Alba sits on my kitchen cart alongside an empty to-go container that housed a date cake with whipped mascarpone from the Italian restaurant I work at in Evanston, IL. The electricity from a connected night with two lovely friends hangs in the air of my studio apartment as music blares from my Bose speaker, throwing the light of my candlelight back and forth.

Today, during a vocal coaching in between a Bach cantata and a Verdi aria, I received an email from the United States Fulbright Association revealing that I’m a semi-finalist for a Fulbright to attend the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. I burst out into tears in front of my vocal coach, who has had an important impact on my musical journey from rural Wisconsin to a top-ten University. The world seems to be working in my favor in ways that are beyond explanation.

Earlier in the day today, I was the focus of an interview by a writer at the Northwestern student publication North by Northwestern. I spent forty minutes explaining my summer research, and as I became more comfortable with the interview, I felt the passion and excitement bubbling underneath my words that transported me back to my summer of planned spontaneity. I began to remember the feeling from the streets of Rome to the mountains of Switzerland and stringing through all of the major Italian cities I set foot in; an invisible force leading me from one fulfilling evening and lesson learned to another.

This blog has followed my journey from a Portland Half Marathon before my summer research until now, and I have never felt more secure in my path than I do sitting in my bed on the 7th floor of my Main St. apartment than this very moment. The taste of Nebbiolo, a grape strongly associated with Piemonte, where the University of Gastronomic Sciences resides, speaks to my palate and tells me that the next email I’ll receive from the Fulbright committee will bless me; whether a welcome into the financial freedom of $30,000 towards my master education or the opportunity to learn how to figure it out on my own without the financial support of the US Government… I am thankful.

I am thankful.

Cheers, with a glass of Nebbiolo, to a year of connecting my story to others’ in this beautiful, complicated world.

Dreaming