Everything again- English

1- When they told me I was going to Latvia

It has been a long and complicated journey but I will try to describe it as best I can for all those who want to read it and, why not, for the future me.

A long time ago some people came to school, they talked about a trip, a year abroad, I sat and listened but it seemed like seeing a movie, it wasn't real and it didn't concern me. It was more or less September 2019, my mother and I were talking about this aforementioned trip, I was interested but it was too big for me, I said yes but I didn't really believe it. But when the testimony of a girl who had spent nine months in Japan (a country that has always fascinated me a lot) reached me, I decided that I wanted to leave too.

From there it was a succession of documents to fill out, countries to choose, doctor visits and interviews. It wasn't easy at all, I really hate paperwork. I had to get a passport, blood tests, an English and a psychological test but in the end I passed the selections. I won a partial scholarship, but that meant that I wouldn't know exactly which country I was going to, I would write a list of ten countries and perhaps one would be selected from among them.

One day I was at home, around January 2020, a day like any other, and my mom came running from the other room screaming "YOU'RE IN!!!!". It was a moment of shock, we hugged each other crying, but then the question was spontaneous, for which country? She glanced at the email she had received "Latvia" she said, I paused for a second, "Latvia? But was that even on the list?" On the one hand I was disappointed that it wasn't Japan or the USA, but on the other I was super curious.

"And where is Latvia?" I asked Mom, and what language do they speak? What religion do they practice? Ah is it a Baltic country? So do they speak Russian? And all excited we started calling all the relatives to announce that I would be leaving in August for a mysterious land covered with forests.

So between quarantine and study the summer had arrived, a little later I would have taken a flight to Riga but I still felt as if it were all a hypothesis, summer at the sea like every year, friends, everything was as always, but there was something in the air, change, everyone had a certain sadness in their eyes, they knew that I would be gone, disappeared, for nine months, without the possibility of seeing each other, of hugging. My best friend once begged me not to go, what would she do without me? Then she understood that it was the right thing, we said goodbye and since then we have spoken every day.

My parents were very proud of me, they have always supported and encouraged me, even in the hardest moments, if it wasn't for them I would never have left, so I am very grateful to them because this journey has transformed me.

And so in no time at all I was in the car, my stuff packed, heading for Milan to take a direct plane to Latvia.