Why go to Italy and do Research?

Field Research

I have a huge library across the street from my house, I go to a university everyday where I can talk to professionals in just about any academic field there is, I can get onto the internet at anytime I want and look up research articles that have been published anytime in the last 75 years from just about anywhere in the world. So why then would I travel all the way to Italy to do research? Well, there is the obvious answer: It's Italy! Ha. But it's not just that. I've spent the last 16 1/2 years of my life (which is quite significant considering the fact that I'm 21) learning in a classroom. I've learned amazing things there and I'm beyond grateful for my education, but I want to use my book smarts and apply it to the real world. I do neuro-psychology research in a great lab, and I had a great internship this past summer where I actually got to go into homes of different families and conduct interviews--I love actually interacting with people and learning about them. I think that's why I decided to major in psychology and pursue a graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy--people are amazing, I've never met a person that wasn't interesting. That seems like a big statement, but it's true--IF you actually take the time to get to know someone, you're going to learn something interesting about them. While that was a bit of a tangent, that's a big part of the reason I want to go to Italy--to interact with people and learn about them.

There's a lot of learning that can't be done in a class room and my favorite type (so far) is they type where I get to interact and learn about different people. I want to make sure that I'm taking full advantage of being in Italy and studying something there that I couldn't do here. My hope is that I can live with a family and do a little bit of a case study with them while I get submerged in the culture, then do some survey research early on in my study, so that I can base my interview questions off of what I learn from the surveys and get a more in depth understanding of why it is that young adults in Italy choose to stay at home, rather than live independently and what their perceptions are of marriage.

Basically I'm more excited for this field study than just about anything else--I know it's not going to be easy, I actually just got done talking with a girl who did an internship in Italy; she said she cried herself to sleep the first couple weeks because everything (the language, culture, ect) was so overwhelming. Hopefully I'm mentally prepared enough so that doesn't happen. I'll be as prepared as possible, go, and take advantage of every moment I have in the beautiful country of Italy!