Before we left, I was weighed down by the resistance posed by some students who didn’t see a point in traveling to spend some days together. Weighing down on me was also a conversation I had with a friend who, in light of the GS vacation, was convinced that her kids had not attended GS this year because they did not feel welcome, and she invited me to think about this.

I perceived a reduction that left me restless, as well as an almost suffocating measure. Why do I move to do things? Do I have to preserve preestablished boundaries? Within all my limitations, what am I looking for? The Lord came to me through a phone call by a student I barely knew. He had been invited to our study weekend by a friend and he asked me for more information. I briefly told him about it and he immediately said, “I didn’t think anything like this was possible.” I said, “Come and see.”

Everything took off from there. All the students we met through these past few years were there with their peers, even the ones we barely knew. Many of my colleagues came with incredible gladness and dedication. Some university students helped us with logistics so that, as they themselves said, others could experience what they had experienced. An evening was arranged around three significant anniversaries: The Constitution in ’48, explained by a Ph.D. candidate in Constitutional Law, the ’68 protests told through songs, and Moro and the Red Brigades of ’78, retold by two Philosophy professors. The following day, Fabio, one of the professors from the previous evening, being a great cook, made us all focaccia and, having few cooking utensils at hand, ended us kneading dough for two hours. Beppe, my friend and colleague, stopped by my Italian Literature review session. He told me that our yearly study weekend is the only way his school-year can ever conclude. At the end of his stay, a Science teacher who was with us for two days said, “This study weekend, along with our food drive, is one of my two yearly pillars.” The kids lived through the weekend with an unimaginable familiarity. They all helped each other “lift their heads up,” truly see things, and take advantage of this special moment that begs us to ask ourselves who we are and what we want. These are the same questions that were proposed one evening with the university students.

Marina, Genova, Italy