Katherine's last night in Venice

Written by Katherine.....exactly how she wrote it in Venice.



Thurs. night
12:20ish (AM)
(tech Friday)

There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing – nothing – that can compete with standing on the open part of a ferryboat in Venice at 10:30PM with Jane, Cody, Myles, Connor, Patrick, Will, and Olivia, standing in the corner with a roof but no walls and no boatlights, dressed up and looking out over the water. You can see nothing but the rolls of water glittering and the lights—both the “street” lights in the water and the lights in every window of all the gorgeous architectural structures—all reflections. Everything in Venice sparkles, and everything’s reflections and reflecting and reflective, literally and figuratively. The water’s green in day, but black by night.

And we’re there on the boat, and the wind is whipping my hair and making my earrings—Venetian glass—swing and ruffling the boys’ hair, too, and it’s a little cold but we’re all chatting about this and that and laughing and Liv has Will’s rose and Connor’s whispering in my ear that I look beautiful and I really do feel beautiful because I’m in one of the most gorgeous places ever with people I love and would do anything for and I’m happy—it’s wonderful. Wonderful, there in the Italian night air, with the boat swaying underneath our feet and lights glimmering everywhere. I can’t say it enough: wonderful. It’s perfection. It’s romance; it’s adventure; it’s kinship; it’s friendship; it’s life.

And, really, there’s never anything like smiling and glancing back at your friends while you’re all laughing and looking out and seeing Venice shining in their eyes. You realize that you have tears in your eyes—and they do, too—and so everything is clearer than ever and you never never never want to forget this moment, because you’re all enmeshed in the magic that is Venice-Italy-Europe all together, witnessing—no, being a part of—the beauty and the radiance and the vibrance there in the lamplight cast from that glorious Byzantine-ish architecture. It’s unbelievable, but you’re living it, and you feel so incredibly alive.

I don’t know that I’ve ever felt quite so happy. I do know that I was almost crying. I love it, I love them, I love this trip.

There just aren’t enough words, sometimes.


Written from my bed in the Hotel Belvedere, Venice, Italy, while chatting with Erin and Liv.