The WIR Team has become exactly what it says to be—a Team. At the end of our emails we sign them with the WalkInsideRome initials. At first when I heard the team refer to it as signing WIR at the end, I thought, “Why would a professional company sign a letter with we’re”? In more ways than one the WE’RE would have sufficed. The people I intern with are a close knit of people that are not only tolerant, but mentors to everyone who is willing to learn.
Starting from the beginning, just like the hill I walk up every morning to get to my internship placement, it was intimidating and I had no idea what it would be like getting to the end of the hill. The WIR Team hill was at first tiring and a challenge, but I knew quitting was not an option. I know I needed to just suck it up and take normal breaths with each step I took. By the middle of my experience with the lovely people of the WalksInsideRome family, it was starting to seem rewarding because I was not only understanding myself better and my potentials, but the intimidation the hill first posed because it was so steep was starting to flatten out. Now that I am close to the end of this hill, I can look back and not only feel accomplished, but feel like I am ready to tackle the next challenge in the way. I can now properly reflect on each breathe I took that helped me get passed the intimidation and voices in my head that spoke negative about the wonderful experience I was to have on my journey.
Marilena, Salvatore, Shereya, Margerita, and Kristy have been so helpful and patient with the new American girl. Outside of teaching me how to do the tasks I was given, they corrected my mistakes without harsh criticisms that would make me feel incompetent, or like an outsider, they took sincere interests in my experiences in Rome as a whole. Before half of my internship time was over, I fell in love with waking up early every summer morning to go to work.
We are the WIR Team and I am more than grateful and happy that I was able to be a part of the “we”!