I am so excited about my first blog, I thought about this for a long time but now is the time to share part of my story with you all!
First of all I want to say that English is my second language so I am sorry if there will be grammatical errors, lol.
My first language is Italian, I was born and grew up in Venice (Venezia), so actually English is my third language if we count Venetian as first. If you don't know, in Italy there are 20 regions and each one of them has a different dialect (which is more like their own language), if I would hear someone from Sicily for example speaking Sicilian I would have a hard time understanding what they are saying, and vice versa!
I've studied English through all the years in school, but we get to learn British English not American, which sounds quite different. I always loved to travel, learning different cultures and languages but I would have never thought that one day I would have to use English to communicate with my now husband, Caleb.
In 2016 Caleb got stationed in Italy at the Del Din base in Vicenza, he was a medic paratrooper for the Army. We connected casually on a dating app and after a couple of months talking we decided to meet in Venice, needless to say that after we met, we clicked and fell in love pretty quickly.
A couple of years into our relationship we decide that the best way to continue was to get married because his time in Italy was coming to an end. We got married on March 3rd, 2018 at the courthouse in Venice and all our families members gathered together to celebrate our wedding on April 29th in the beautiful Murano's island.
Pretty soon after, Caleb got assigned to Colorado Springs in Colorado. I knew Fort Carson could have been a possibility but when we got the confirmation I felt very nervous. I started researching everything about Colorado, places to visit, houses where we could live, restaurants to try, new activities, and all the things to explore together! The more I was searching the more I was getting excited about the move, excited for the next chapter of our lives! Even so, in the back of my mind I was extremely sad about leaving my family and friends behind. I think that during the moving months I went in a sort of robot mode. I was going to work Monday to Saturday, then driving or taking the train to Vicenza to spend time with Caleb for the weekend, going back to Venice on Sunday night and then repeating over and over. I didn't have time to process the emotions of this big step. At that time Caleb had to attend a school in Texas for six weeks so we had to plan our move at different times, it was one of the most challenging things we had to face. But on April 28th, 2019 we got reunited in Colorado Springs and spent our first year anniversary together. - ♥︎ When it says "it all comes to a full circle".
The first few days were great! We were finally together again! We explored the area and the huge base of Fort Carson, we were even so lucky to find a very nice home on base without spending weeks on the waiting list. The first time for us living together! A place all to ourselves! That we could decorate however we wanted and make it feel like home! It was beautiful, exciting, and magical!
Later that week we found out that Caleb was going to deploy, so only after a month spent together he had to leave. Everything was new for me, nothing was familiar, I was in a new country where I didn't know anybody, zero friends, zero family, nothing! The only person I knew was my husband, my rock, my everything, so when I discovered that he would have to leave for 6-9 months I was shocked! We knew that was a possibility of him deploying but I didn't expect it to be so soon. I even thought about going back to Italy for those months so at least I could have spent more time with my family but I couldn't leave because I was waiting on my green card and even after you receive it you have to continuously live in the States for the first 6 months in order to keep your residency.
I didn't have a choice, I had to stay there and the only way was to "roll up my sleeves" (like we say in Italy) and find something to do, I found a job, spent a lot of time at the gym, I made a couple of friends, but yet again I was on "robot" mode, limiting myself to feel emotions, suppressing my sadness, putting up a good face, and pretending that everything was fine. I was deeply missing my husband, my family, my friends, and not less important my city! Venice is such a big part of my heart, it is not only about the physical part of the city, it was the LIFE in Venice, getting on the 5 minutes waterbus ride, being surrounded by water, walking to work everyday in the quiet hour when most people are asleep, the smell of freshly baked bread in each corner, the smell of seaweed during low tide, stopping at my favorite bar to get my usual espresso and a croissant filled with apricot jam, the breathtaking view from the Accademia's bridge looking at the sun rising right behind the Chiesa Della Salute, ugh I could go on for hours telling you all the beautiful thing about my city but I am going to save it for another time :)
My heart was in pain, I couldn't wait for Caleb to come back, and on November of that year he was able to return home right before Thanksgiving! My heart was happy again!
We spent three beautiful years in Colorado, lots of milestones for our lives, we adopted our three super cute fur babies, Bruce & Robin our dogs, and our little princess cat Nimbus, we bought our first home, even my parents were able to come visit us, we explored and I got to experience a completely different weather and lifestyle from what I was used to, the warm dry summer and the freezing cold winter, lots of snow, gorgeous clear sky on those vast landscapes, the smell of freshly cut grass and the antelopes running in the prairie. Even though I am so grateful for the experience that Colorado gave me, lots of lessons learned, achieved goals, and growth, there was only one big piece missing for me, I was way too far from the ocean!
After these three years Caleb got medically separated from the military and we had to face the hard decision to stay in Colorado and live our lives there or start fresh in his home state of Florida. We decided to take a leap of faith and move closer to his family, friends, and the water (silly you might say) but I am a strong believer that humans like animals have their own habitat and mine is being near the water. I surely need it for my soul, I didn't simply grew up near the beach, I grew up surrounded by water, I didn't have a car, I had a boat! My parents and I would go boating every day. I would always daydream of seeing the water glimmer, hearing it's song, and smelling it's perfume, that's what was missing, so I thought that moving near Destin was the best compromise for me to have two homes, Venice and America.
It wasn't the first time for me to see Fort Walton Beach and Destin, I came to meet Caleb's family in 2017, and I remember thinking at that time, that it was a place I could have lived in, because in some small part it was familiar to my life in Venice. Going boating, watching the waves crash under the boat, looking at the white water made by the motor when you go fast, and admiring the sun setting over the water reminded me of home. Beside the city life part, my favorite core memories are related with me going boating with my family, so moving to Florida and having that in my life again was the best decision that we could have made. It only takes me 20 minutes to go watch the sunset at the beach, we can rent a boat whenever we want and I can create beautiful memories with my husband here. I can truly say that my soul feels full again!
Thank you for spending time reading part of my story, I will be back soon :)
Ciao a presto, Giorgia!
