The Day I Conquered My Worst Fear while in Rome
by: Alison Graham

In order to fully appreciate this story, you have to know that I am from a small town, and I have no sense of direction whatsoever. Rome was the first city that I had ever lived in, and while it was incredibly exciting, it was also incredibly scary. I wondered how in the world I would ever be able to find my way around, and I wasterrified that I would get hopelessly lost in a section of the city, never to be heard from again. On my very first full day in Rome, I was forced to face up to this fear. You may ask what happened. Well, I blame it on the bus.

The first morning of orientation for my study abroad program, my roommates and I all got up and got ready to head to the hotel where we were going to have our first meeting as study abroad students in Rome. Our program had given us packets with directions to the hotel, but we were still all pretty nervous. Well, we marched down to the bus stop and waited on the bus we needed. Wonder of allwonders, it came about five minutes after we got to the bus stop.

(I should mention here that the public buses in Rome don't have a schedule, so whether or not you're going to reach your destination on time is always up in the air.) We noticed that the bus was crowded, but we decided to push on anyway because we didn't know when the next one would be coming. My roommates all were standing near the bus' center entrance, and I headed for the front door because it looked like there was a little more room up front. I heard my roommates calling my name, but I though it was just because they hadn't seen me get on the bus.

Wrong, very wrong. I turned around to see all of my roommates standing on the sidewalk outside the bus and the bus doors slam in my face. I was alone, in Rome, on a public bus, with only a piece of paper to guide me. This was my worst nightmare coming true. Fortunately, I knew how to ask where something was located in Italian, so I made my way up to the bus driver, tried to stop hyperventilating, and asked him where in the world I was supposed to go. The bus driver looked at me, and then took my directions, and made a lot of "Hmm...Hmmmmmm" noises while I saw visions of my new life as a homeless girl in Rome. Finally he reached the last stop on the line, got out, took my hand, and led me over to a big group of bus drivers. Oh boy.

After holding a 10 minute conference on where in the world I needed to go, the driver led me over to another bus. The driver had a conversation with the driver on the new bus, stuck me on that bus, and said "Stay with him. Good luck." and left. I felt just a bit like a 4 year old, but a very, very grateful 4 year old. Well, once the next bus driver got to the stop I needed, he stopped the busand let me out. When I got off, I didn't see the stop, and I apparently looked very confused.

The next thing I heard was two quick honks of a horn, and I looked up to see the bus driver motioning me down the street, so I started walking. This man apparently realized what a desperate case I was, because he followed me at the rate of 2 miles an hour until I'd reached the stop, and then waved goodbye. I caught the next bus I needed, and once again showed the third driver where I needed to go. I finally started calming down as the pictures in my head of my face on a "Missing" sign faded, and I looked up just in time to see the Colisseum as we passed it.

That was the moment when I realized that I was actually in Rome, Italy and about to have the time of my life. About 15 minutes later after huge hugs from my roommates, I was sitting in my first "Welcome to Rome" orientation meeting, with the biggest smile on my face. I had conquered my worst fear on my very first day here, and even gotten to see the Coliseum while I was at it. Life doesn't get much better than that.

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