Charles was taking the Intercity train from Florence to Bologne to visit friends, and when he sat down diagonally across from me just before the ride started I thought he was Italian.  His skin was very dark and he had the stubble of a beard several days old.  His peacock coat was a brownish gold mixed with black.  Attached to the collar was a grey hood.  Charles looked every bit the well-dressed Italian, but when his Blackberry rang he answered with an American “Hello,” and, muffling his voice by placing one hand over his mouth and the mobile, asked quickly if the caller were still in Europe.  “You’re an American?” I asked him, and he smiled.  He was not, in fact, a well-dressed Florentine but a New York hipster with a technology background who looked to be in his early 20s but was 32. 

The man had an exciting, circular energy about him, the kind of take-action hero who always reveals an idea or suggestion for what to do next.  Each problem, it turns out, is conquerable; every dream or goal demands a plan.  Charles was in Italy to scout out the country as he was contemplating a potential move abroad.  “America just doesn’t seem to be living up to its potential,” he said, and for the next hour we waxed expatriate philosophy, finding common ideological ground in the belief that America is great but could be better.

  “I just don’t understand how Americans’ priorities work out,” Charles said, his eyes conjuring up some long-ago experience that led to this thought.  He was slouching in his chair, as was I, and because we had four seats to the two of us the atmosphere was quite relaxed.  “I don’t understand why abortion and gay marriage are the issues Americans care about, but no one thinks about the environment..”

  In many ways, the points he brought up were the same ones that I have thought of in my two and a half months so far abroad, only worded differently.  The conversation was intelligent but what struck me more was the inspiring take on life Charles held.  Every moment was, at least it seemed to be to him, a chance to make something new, to discover something different, to change that which wasn’t working.  He was in his early 20s and a computer science major when the dot-com boom hit; Charles worked as a consultant.  “It really was just a lot of fun and there was a lot of money to be made,” he said with eternal youth pouring from his voice.  In response to my major in college: “American Studies seems to be the hot major right now.”  It was refreshing to meet a New Yorker who took advantage of all that city had to offer instead of some roguish asshole predisposed to hate anything that was not Manhattan.  I took away more from the hour long conversation than Charles might ever know, although we did exchange emails.  At 23, it was exactly what I needed to meet someone who at 32 is still searching, exploring, and at the same time conquering.