in the world
Oregon National Guard member Kristy Fitzpatrick
will return to Italy before being deployed to Afghanistan
BY SABRINA GOWETTE
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
When Kristy Fitzpatrick ar
rived at the train station in
Macerata, Italy, she imme
diately lost the comfort and ease of
verbal communication. Although she
had spent the summer taking Italian
classes for her study abroad trip,
nothing prepared her for the difficul
ties of speaking a different language.
Fitzpatrick said going to Italy last fall
was the first time she’d been in a coun
try where no one speaks English.
“It was the most traumatizing time
in my life,” she said.
However, Fitzpatrick made an ef
fort to make Italian friends and learn
the language.
“Language is a struggle, but all you
have to do is try,” she said.
Fitzpatrick has stayed in contact
with the people she met while travel
ing, and she will stay with friends
when she returns this summer for a
month-long post-graduation vacation.
After going back to Italy this sum
mer, Fitzpatrick will be deployed next
spring to Afghanistan for a year as
part of the Oregon National Guard.
She has been in the Army for three
years, in part to help pay for school.
For now, though, Fitzpatrick is fo
cused on her second trip to Italy. She said
she’s saved up all year just to go back.
“It’s a graduation present to myself,”
she said. “A last hurrah before I go
overseas for a year.”
Fitzpatrick sits amid the hectic
rush hour of students coming in and
out of Starbucks, but her energy
overpowers the surrounding com
motion. Her animated hand ges
tures bring life to the details of her
past traveling experiences.
At 22, Fitzpatrick, an international
studies major, has lived in three coun
tries and visited many others, including
South Africa and Ireland.
When she was 14 years old, Fitz
patrick lived in Johannesburg, South
Africa, with family friends her moth
er met on an exchange program
when she was a teenager. Fitzpatrick
studied there for a year and realized
she loved traveling.
“Traveling teaches you a lot about
the world,” she said.
Fitzpatrick’s grandmother, Evelyn
Moore, is a resident of Aumsville, Ore., j
and has hosted several exchange stu- j
dents over the past 30 years. She said ^
Fitzpatrick was able to meet people j
from other countries, such as Hungary /
and Japan. ’
Moore said traveling has encouraged
Fitzpatrick to understand why people
do things differently.
“It modifies your own culture,”
she said.
During her stay in Italy, Fitzpatrick
traveled to Ireland and England for
three weeks. She said she was excited
to swim in the Irish ocean and enjoyed
Ireland’s green scenery.
Fitzpatrick also visited Belfast, Ire
land, where she saw a memorial hon
oring people killed during conflicts
with the Irish Republican Army.
“Northern Ireland is definitely a
sad, sad place to go. You can just feel
it,” she said, referring to the history
of violence there.
After she completes her deploy
ment in Afghanistan, Fitzpatrick said
she wants to go to law school at
Willamette University. She said she
would like eventually to be an inter
national corporate mediator for
American and Italian businesses.
Also, she said she wants to speak
four languages, including Russian,
Italian and Spanish. She hopes to
become fluent in Italian and Span
ish, the two languages she already
has studied.
“Chinese would be awesome,” she
said. “I want to be very versatile.”
Fitzpatrick’s mother, Diana Fitz
patrick, said the way her daughter
travels — staying with friends and ex
periencing different cultures — is
more interesting than going on guid
ed tours. She said traveling is good
for her daughter because she learns
compassion for others.
Fitzpatrick shared similar sentiments.
“Understanding different cultures is
fundamental to being a human being,”
she said.
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