![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/kelsey-veihmann.png)
Ode to CIMBA
Written by Kelsey V. April 20, 2015
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/themes/cimba-1.0.0/assets/img/callout-control-previous.png)
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/themes/cimba-1.0.0/assets/img/callout-control-next.png)
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/themes/cimba-1.0.0/assets/img/blog-thumbcontrol-prev.jpg)
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/blog3-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/blog2-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/donkey-150x150.jpg)
![jk](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/blog1-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cimbaitaly.com/wp-content/themes/cimba-1.0.0/assets/img/blog-thumbcontrol-next.jpg)
I’m incredibly lucky. I’ve seen more of the world at 21 years old than some people will see their entire lives.
I climbed 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo to overlook the red-brick rooftops of Florence. I walked the streets of the Gothic Quarters in Barcelona. I paddleboated in the lake of Buen Retiro Park in Madrid. I took a water taxi down the Grand Canal of Venice. I listened to the Pope give his Sunday blessing in Rome. I wrote a letter to Juliet at her castle in Verona. I jumped off the edge of Mount Grappa and paraglided over Italy. I got a fish pedicure in Budapest. I strolled through the parks of the Belvedere Castle in Vienna on a Sunday afternoon. I listened to a man play Beatles music as I walked the john Lennon wall in Prague. I stood in the gas chamber of one of the first concentration camps in Germany. I watched the statues dances as the glockenspiel struck noon in Munich.
As I return home, I am reminded how lucky I am each and everyday as I share my experiences through stories and pictures. CIMBA allowed me to make lifelong friends (we’re booking plane tickets to our first reunion today), achieve personal growth deeper than I ever knew possible, and see the world. So thank you, CIMBA, for the time of my life.