Arrivederci Roma

Sitting on a plane on the way home from something grand like my stay in Rome earlier this month, had me thinking. As I watched the plane fly over Italy and into Austria and Germany (window seats are nice like that), I got a bit nostalgic, and wrote this on a scrap piece of paper:

The hardest thing is always saying goodbye, so when I can, I do try to avoid it. It’s just too painful when you know that more likely than not, you’ll never see these people again. I may be loud when I arrive, and I’m always talking your ear off, but when it comes to leaving, I don’t want anyone to notice.

Being part of Mr Gay Europe is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing lays in meeting all these amazing people and taking them into your heart; the curse lays in having your heart broken when the time comes to say goodbye. Something I’m really bad at.

Having worked with everyones’ profiles for months, I felt like I had known you for years when we finally all met in Rome. Thank you for always making me laugh and feel good about my job, even when the weather in Rome was slowly killing me. And thank you for letting me be a part of both your joys and disappointments. Being with you on this emotional rollercoaster these few days made my head spin, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With this I wish to say to everyone I’ve met in Rome that I take each and everyone of you with me. Having had the amazing pleasure to spend time with you all has made me richer. Some of you I’ll probably see again. For those of you who I won’t; thank you. Thank you for making me the luckiest girl in the world. Even years from now, you still will be with me. And from time to time, when I look through my photos, I’ll remember you all with that bitter-sweetness that makes us the nostalgic beings that we are.

You all fought hard to get where you are, and in my book, that makes you all winners.

I had about 2000 images from Rome. I had to narrow that down to around 100 images for the show in Gay Village on the final night. And then again down to 20 images for the slideshow on here. It’s hard to decide what has to go and what can stay. Especially when I’d love to keep all the images. But the slider can only handle 20 images, so here are the best of the best of what I call my “action” images.