Find Your Courage By Digging Into Your Past

When I need to make a difficult decision, I often find myself literally feeling the weight of the situation on my shoulders and in my chest.

I am usually the first to tell someone that I “need to sleep on it” when I’m being asked to do something that I’m not ready for.

But as I’ve learned more about myself and my family, I have come to realize that I have it within me to weather a storm. And I find myself “just going for it” more often these days.

Discovering My Family Story

I come from a family of storytellers who have given me a connection to my ancestors who came before me. This allowed me to have a sense of connection to my Italian family and it gave me a proud ethnic identity.

Due to this identity, Spanish and Italian friends have been encouraging me for close to 20 years to apply for Italian citizenship. I never thought it was possible. But as life goes sometimes, in late 2016 I learned that I was eligible for Italian dual-citizenship and I found out how to get it.

The process of collecting the necessary documents allowed me to further fill in the lines of who my great grandparents were. And I was able to do this by fleshing out why they left Italy.