About Bari, Italy

Some people asked why I chose Bari, an anonymous small city while there are so many big historic cities in Italy and the rest of Europe. I grew up in a bustling capital where traffic congestion, business and ambition are the buzzwords for the city. I wanted to see small places. I wanted to meet less busy people. I wanted to visit that kind of life. I wanted a great escape.

My internship provided me with a huge chance to meet and talk to people. My students were from different age groups, from youth to the elderly, from unemployed youngsters to successful businessmen. I was the teacher to them in class while they became my teacher after class. Well, life teacher I guess. They taught me how to slow down my pace, piece together life stories and appreciate its full meaning. I taught them Chinese and English, basically just languages. But what they taught me was their attitude to life which enabled me to reflect on my own.

My gap year has made me fully understand the essence of my major: by studying others and communicating with others that we learn better ourselves. Only when we know ourselves better can we live life in a way that is positively peaceful and sincerely diligent rather than a rush for quick success. I call this attitude “small life”. Usually big wisdom lies in small life.

I had a home stay family in Italy, who turned out to be as close as my real family. I lived with a single Italian girl named Francesca. She was a shop assistant and worked for a famous local Italian designer brand. She didn't get her salary for months because of the economic crisis that happened to Italy that year. Her twin sister Simona, was the owner and the only teacher at the private school where I worked. Simona has a talented tongue. She taught English, German, French and Spanish. She was very nice and great to work with.

Suggestions:

Follow your heart, believe in what you believe and stick to what you stick to no matter how hard it can be. I remember Ellen Degeneres’ speech to the graduating class of 2009, the Katrina class, at Tulane University. She said: “To live life with integrity and not to give into peer pressure to try to be something that you are not. To live life as an honest and compassionate person to contribute in some way”. This really touched me a lot. Besides, there is a movie called Legends of the Fall, which stars Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. At the end, the voiceover says: “Some people hear their inner voices with great clearness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy or they become legends”. What I am trying to say is do the right thing that you think worth doing. Don’t be shackled by creepy people who don’t understand you and creepy things that are not worth living for.

First: Experience weighs far more than a diploma. Realize the importance of how your experience at college prepares you before you step into society.

Second: Things do not happen, things are made to happen. So watch out for the signals that life offers you.

Third: Make good use of chance and youth. Don’t waste your time on booze and boobs.

This story comes from an written interview with Duan Yimeng who now works as a TV journalist in Beijing.