Fortemente gli anni passano

So those words in the title are lyrics from a Laura Pausini song. She's sort of a goddess of Italian pop. I wrote about going to her concert in Florence once upon a time.

The line I took means "the years pass forcefully." I've always liked how it was worded. Not just the years pass inevitably or quickly, but forcefully. We can't stop it. It may be the strongest thing there is, time.

Anyway, I've been waxing reflective thinking about the chapters of my adult life. There are so many ways I could subdivide the last seven years of my existence, based on my interests, my jobs, my choices, but what sticks out to me most vividly is geography. I divide the segments by where I lived. Hence the table of contents to the story of my life would read like this:

Chapter 1: Adventures in Zoobieland, The Semester in a Freshman Dormitory in Provo
Chapter 2: Return of the Native: How can Payson Function Without Me?
Chapter 3: If I Could Be Born Italian, I Would Choose to Be From Siena: A Semester Abroad
Chapter 4: Home Again
Chapter 5: The Godfather II: Taking Florence by Storm
Chapter 6: The ReReturn Home
Chapter 7: London Called (And I Actually Picked Up My Phone)
Chapter 8: Salt Lake City, I've got nothing witty (just a bad rhyme)
Chapter 9: NYC Baby!

It is funny, because each of those chapters seems so different to me. Even the three chapters in which I lived in tPayson--the town I will forever consider my hometown--were distinctly different from each other. The bright-eyed and ambitious 18-year-old college freshman of chapter one feels different from the idealistic yet cripplingly uncertain young lady of chapter 9. But I'm glad for each segment and the people, conflict, resolution, growth and everything that it brought with it.

And sometimes chapters collide.

This weekend facebook, that magical binding which keeps so many of the characters of my life from slipping out of my story all together, informed me that my old friend Jessica was in town. There are many wonderful Jessicas in my life, but THIS wonderful Jessica was part of the cohort of Americans that volunteered in London with Winant Clayton. We were instant friends because of our inherent nerdiness.

So, I'll keep trying to wrestle the years back to no avail. Maybe as more and more of them pass I will devise I different way to subdivide my days, but until then it will always be about the place where I temporarily rest my head.