Date:                July 15, 2024

Location:          Assisi

Blogger:            Obi Ugboahjah ‘28

Hometown:      Pflugerville, Texas

This morning I struggled to get out of bed. The thermostat in our room was set to 19 degrees when we woke up, and I thought air would freeze to death if I got up to change it. Once I finally was warm enough to get up and get ready, Audrey and I went downstairs to get breakfast. The breakfast at La Rocca is not the best, so some of us found a cute little cafe near the hotels to get breakfast at before we went to lessons. All I got was a Coke, which must’ve been like my fifteenth of this trip. After that we had lessons about college life and taking care of yourself and your mental health.

After the most mid lunch ever, we met Lee Walker, the author of Imagination House, and his friend Will Wynn, former mayor of Austin. The most impactful things I took from their talk was about the importance of connectedness between humans and the necessity of empathy in a leader. They also talked about values, and how you don’t need a map or a plan for your life, you need a compass to guide you along (your values). I thought their talk was super inspirational! After they left, we had some more lessons before our free time. During our free time we went exploring and found the Church of Saint Margaret which we hadn’t seen before. It was in this super beautiful part of town that had depictions of dragons everywhere, which upon further research I found is the symbol of Saint Margaret. We walked around for a bit more and looked in some stores, then headed back for dinner. Since it was our last day in Assisi we sat on the balcony for dinner and had more pasta and Coke (shocker) and fruit for dinner. Then we walked around for a little bit more, soaking in the city and braving the hills one last time before heading up to bed.

Ciao