Journal #1 Where have you been and where are you going?

My name is Lucia Gioiello, I went to Laguardia High School of Performing and Visual Arts. Experiences that have shaped how I am would probably be my living with my dad and twin brother all my life, and also when I went to Japan in sophomore year. The first has affected me because I learned how to do many household chores at an early age. I think that makes me more responsible in general. Having a twin brother made me a lot less selfish because we had to share everything, but also always gave me someone to relate to, but who was also very different and experienced different things than me. My father is also a former hippie, so I grew up participating in various “spiritual meetings,” I’ve been to mormon church, I’ve practiced Korean Taoism and meditation. This has made me very open to different cultures and in my opinion, pretty nonjudgemental.

When I went to Japan for 6 weeks I was completely cut off from my family. It was a strange feeling to be away from my brother whom I had never been apart from longer than a week. It was also obviously foreign and I knew no one. However I learned so much from that experience because I realized past all boundaries it is easy to communicate and relate to anyone. Once you open up and surrender judgements and walls, people usually follow your lead and you can have the greatest relationships.
I expect college to be a growing experience. I don’t think I will be able to do everything I hope for, but I’m going to strive to do as much as I can. I want to use college as a way to get to my higher goals. I hope I can manage my time correctly this semester, and the thing I would be worried about most is getting lost and not understanding assignments, not clicking with classmates, and getting lazy.