Sometimes a quality that people may view as a weakness can really be one of our greatest strengths. Mine’s sensitivity. Being sensitive beautifully shapes the way I view the word and meaningfully interact, but it took me time to realize that.

I spend a night in an igloo, I shark cage dive, I visit South Africa, I paint a gigantic mural of an Italian landscape, and Giada De Laurentiis or Bobby Flay cook me a personal meal …

Elemental shifts toward the fall season remind me that change is a natural and beautiful thing. It sparks a period of introspection, where I look at my life and notice what has grown, what wants to fall away, and what parts of myself want to transform with the season.

I first visited Sicily on a school-excursion during a semester studying in Tuscany. Four years later, I was walking down the aisle in the island’s quaint town of Ortigia.