Thanksgiving at Nonnu’s

I have always loved Thanksgiving. My family has always enjoyed a very traditional Thanksgiving dinner… except for the fact that my grandpa isn’t American… and everyone eats lamb and spiedini instead of the turkey…and he makes pasta instead of stuffing… Okay, so the food at Nonnu’s Thanksgiving dinners isn’t exactly a traditional American Thanksgiving. But […]

Living in a Dorm

My entire life, I’ve lived in a very quiet suburb. The most noise I ever heard at night was an occasional car driving in the street behind my house. Having complete silence while trying to sleep at night was a luxury that I took advantage of… until I started living in my dorm. Don’t get […]

St. Louis

I did not fully appreciate my home town until it was about time for me to leave it. I remember when I was younger somebody told me that everybody from St. Louis always comes back, and at the time I thought that was ridiculous. I thought, why would anybody want to live here their whole […]

Turangalila

Although I was unable to attend the symphony Turangalila with my classmates, unfortunately I was able to listen to it on Youtube. In my West and the World class, I learned that this symphony was about love. However, if I went into the symphony with no background knowledge, I never would have guessed that. Instead, […]

Women’s March

Last winter, with some of my closest friends, I attended the St. Louis Women’s March. To prepare, my friend Maggie hosted a poster making night at her house. There were about 15 of us, eating pizza, listening to music, and making our posters for the women’s march. If you know me at all, you would […]

The Joy of Concerts

My absolute favorite thing to do in the world is going to concerts. I’ve been to roughly 35 concerts so far and I do not regret going to a single one. The first concert I went to was U2 when I was seven years old, and I remember crying out of happiness the entire concert. […]

Ireland

As an international studies major at the University of Dayton, studying abroad is required. I have nearly the entire world available for me to explore. I could study in Italy, Spain, Africa, Australia, China, England and so many other places for an entire semester or even longer. However, the one place that I wish to […]

life-changing quotes

The first time I read this quote in Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” I was in my sophomore year English class. Today, I still believe that this quote was an immense contributor to how I am today. The concept of “contradicting” myself had always been a lingering problem to me. Before I heard this quote, I […]

My Big Fat Sicilian Family

Screaming, crying, laughing, and a whole lot of pasta. It’s just a normal evening at Nonnu’s. I never got the choice to have a Sicilian family. I would say its like being taught how to swim by being launched out of a helicopter into the Mississippi river… if the Mississippi was made of pasta sauce. […]

Why UD?

Over a span of roughly 3 years, my family and I managed to tour nearly fifteen universities. We toured schools in Indiana, Nebraska, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, Ohio, and probably additional states that I cannot even remember. At first, I was simply tagging along on the tours my older brother was taking. But, of course, as […]