ser-en-dip-i-ty [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]
–noun
1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for.
I am moving to Amelia, Italy on May 31st. Well technically I am boarding a plane on May 31st, and landing in Italy on June 1st, so I suppose I am moving to Amelia, Italy on June 1st. So how has this all come to be? We shall start at the beginning (all you Sound of Music fans… STOP SINGING!!).
When I was in undergrad I majored in Art History, by far the most rewarding and interesting part of my educational life. Amidst all of the slides, paintings and sculptures I started to notice a running theme associated with all of the things I found interesting; I was always drawn to the items that had been lost, looted, stolen, destroyed, etc. This led me to contemplate going to law school in order to pursue this interest even more, but I soon realized that the area I wanted to focus on was not the law so much as the art and history. So I graduated with a BA in Art History, kissed my art dreams goodbye and got a MBA.
Lucky for me that pesky little interest of mine would not go away. I would often talk to my friends and family about finding a way to work my way into the art (and more specifically the art theft) world. About a year and a half ago my wonderful Aunt Mary Ellen sent me a newspaper clipping (desirable accidental discovery #1) from the New York Times. A young man about my age had just started his own association: The Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). I read the article, was very much intrigued and jealous, and then put the article aside (I was in the middle of my first out of school job that afforded me little if any personal time, so I knew researching it in depth wouldn’t really happen).
About 6 months later I had quit my job and was spending a weekend in Orlando with my mom. I had decided to go to the bookstore and shortly after arriving one book caught my eye, The Art Thief.
So, I picked it up and read the back. Wouldn’t you know, the same young man featured in the NY Times article had written this book as well (desirable accidental discovery #2).
This was too much of a coincidence. Here was someone doing exactly what I have always wanted to do. So, I went to his website and wrote him an e-mail to see if he needed any employees. He wrote me back and explained that while they were not hiring until the Fall of 2009 (when they open their office in Rome) I could volunteer and that I should look into a masters program that they were offering (desirable accidental discovery #3).
Long story short I applied and got accepted into the masters program for the Study of Art Crime.
So there you have it. Serendipity? Maybe, but if so, I really hope the second definition works out too!
