“I’ve been blessed to have lived in a lot of different places, and I don’t have one favorite, but I have things I liked about each place in particular. If I think of growing up in a really small town in western Pennsylvania, what I like about that is how much nature there was. But then I moved to Milan, and one million people live in Milan. I learned about the Italian culture. I met my wife, and my kids were born there. So I love Italy. It’s the history; there have been things happening there for centuries. So it really gives you appreciation, as an American with a young country, how long things have been happening in the world, and how advanced the world was, even before we think of modern times. So I think it really gives you a real sense of time, history, amazing art, just the Italian culture being so family-focused and food-focused. Then I moved to Germany, and it was said that Italian culture is based on relationships, and German culture is less based on relationships. But I lived in Munich, and southern Bavaria is just so beautiful. And I moved to Indonesia, and Indonesia was amazing. It’s such a different experience because it wasn’t the West. It’s a country that’s a constitutional community through diversity. It’s downtown Jakarta. You have the biggest mosque in South Asia next to the biggest Catholic Church. I think it was really good for my children to spend six years there, because it’s a place where, from the western standards, people have less, but really they have so much in so many other ways. So it really helps you, and they’re so happy. So I really loved Indonesian Jakarta for the people, but the city was challenging. It’s just like 40,000,000 people, and there’s no public transport. So if you ever want to Google Jakarta traffic and see the pictures. And then I moved here. I love Chestnut Hill because of the school and the students, and I moved to Dubai, and Dubai is just a desert, so young and new. The country is only 52 years-old, so everything is new, and everything functions. So the beauty of Dubai is that you have 200 different nationalities living in that city, and you learn so many cultures from people all over.
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Dr. Druggan
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About the Contributor
Maya Lawson ’26, Staff Writer
Maya is currently a senior at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, and this is her first year on staff. Outside of school, she can be found hanging out with friends and family or baking.


















































