It all started with a tomato...

It all started with a tomato. Or rather, it began with a description of a tomato. My sixth grade teacher had spent her summer vacation in Italy. When we returned to school in the Fall, we were discussing memorable moments from our summer break and her description of a tomato captivated my imagination.

I don’t recall her exact words now, but whatever she said, a vivid picture was indelibly burned into my brain. I could almost taste it: voluptuous carmine fruit whose delicate skin burst to reveal luscious sun-ripened flesh.

And it was that image that inspired me - eleven years later - to sell almost everything I owned and willingly sign a year-long contract of servitude. When I excitedly told my parents that I was foregoing law-school applications to live in Italy, I will never forget my mom’s reaction – “you’re going half-way around the world to take care of other people’s children?”

Yes. I thought that being an au pair was my ticket to adventure. It was certainly an adventure. But it was, more importantly, an experience that forever altered the trajectory of my life.

Jake, only half-jokingly, says, "I only proposed because you lived in Italy and learned to cook there." Maybe he's not joking at all.