When Aiden Brown first moved to Italy, he recalls one of his first memories; a time when he went out to see a newly released movie, yet his phone had died, and so he was never able to tell his parents where he had gone. He stayed until the movie ended, before heading home to the military base where his family was stationed. Lights were flashing everywhere, and he found out that the whole of the base security and the military police were out searching for him that night.

Aiden Brown, a junior at age 17, moved to Catana, Italy from San Diego, California, in his sixth-grade year, 2016. A military brat, he moved when his mother got an overseas job and started schooling in Catana, a city in Sicily, Italy, from his sixth-grade year to the beginning of his tenth.

Being a military brat, Brown came back to the United States at the beginning of his tenth-grade year and headed straight into Central Kitsap, right when the pandemic hit.

“[Starting school in the US] wasn’t really that noticeable at first because, I mean, everybody was inside because of COVID”, Brown said.

Brown explained that his transition back from Italy wasn’t all that hard. With COVID closing schools and keeping everyone quarantined, he wasn’t forced into the Central Kitsap community straight away.

“A good comparison is it was kind of like moving from the [U.S.] south to here in a way,” said Brown, “But like an Italian version… everything seems newer and more innovative and more expensive [here],”.

While Brown wasn’t able to fully gain the whole American high school experience when he first moved, he recognized many differences the two cultures pose, and has been able to experience Central Kitsap’s community as schools reopened. Many of the differences he discovered came from both their communities and habits.

“[Schools are] a lot bigger with a lot more kids over here… [in Italy] they’re just people from all over Europe,” said Brown.

American high schools are often associated with their cliques, whereas in Italy, high schoolers are associated with where they’re from, Brown mentioned. So with the school smaller, and like-minded students tending to keep together, relationships tended to be closer and more meaningful.

“In Italian school, friendships are very, very close… and they go on to be friends for a very long time,” said 16 year old Beren Kurum, Brown’s closest friend whom he made during his time in Italy, during an interview conducted over call.

As friendships tend to run deep, some part of this surely plays to how these boys described Italy’s culture and values.

“The culture is very family oriented,” Brown said.

Brown further described how shops can close around 1 or 3 p.m., simply in order to spend time with loved ones, and that’s just how it’s always been.

“Warm hearted people, wonderful places, hospitality, the way people look after you… it’s very nice,” Kurum said.

However, even though the culture exudes hospitality, the culture, as all other communities, embodies some of the harsher aspects of life.

“They’re very religious and Catholic,” said Brown, “So a lot of times they have their biases against… gay people… they’re not fans of Africans, like Black people,”.

With Italy being a large religious culture, discrimination is still a part of their community, and has affected Brown during his time there, and is common within schools as well. Brown explained such a time; when he was called a merchant boy in Italian while he was out with his friends, implying he was a poor African that sometimes sold stuff on the streets there.

“There’s a lot of discrimination because theres… different kinds of people, it’s just mainly white,” said Kurum, “Also, they aren’t used to other cultures, only their own, so they’re racist,”.

Schools in America, which opened during his junior year, gave Brown a chance to start interacting with more people in the Central Kitsap community, which gave him some perspectives of how these two cultures differentiate.

“[People at CK] are actually more accepting you know… you can identify within a school,” said Brown, “it’s just not something you’d have in Italy,”.

When Brown was first entering American high school, he noticed the difference in school’s involvement, with more opportunities through clubs and other school-sponsored activities, the community is more accepting of people’s differences and creates chances for students to meet with one another through personal identity.

With Brown’s first year of Central Kitsap as remote, forming friendships was not easy. As school continues to be back in session, Brown compares how friendship differs from back in Italy, to where he is now at CK.

“I guess over there [in Italy] I had more friends… I’ve only been here for like five months… You know, I got people to talk to in every class… [Haven’t] really built relationships but that’s just mostly how I am,” Brown said.

With a good four years of living in Italy, Brown made close relationships with people he still talks to regularly today, where he mentioned the time hanging out with those friends was a lot greater than that type of time out he spends here.

“I remember us going into the city at, like, two a.m. for ice cream, and then heading to the metro station and seeing these two really sketchy guys,” said 16 year old Bruce Gale, another close friend of Brown’s from his time living in Italy, “So I mean we left but then a few minutes later we were being trailed by a car, so we ended up running all the way back home, being chased by this guy,”.

Brown and his friends share many memories of good times from their days as Italian students, whereas Brown explained he doesn’t have those same types of relationships at CK due to less time having been here, and a community that’s just not as close as Italy’s.

Within his community and throughout his life, soccer has always been important to Brown, and was something he was able to continue when he moved back to America.

“I got scouted to the upper team in Catana… it was the number two ranked team there… I played for a little bit… [then] I hurt myself before I moved here,” said Brown.

With soccer having created many opportunities for Brown, it continued to open doors for him when he moved to Central Kitsap, and created ways for him to meet new people.

“[Soccer] made it easier for him [Brown] to make friends,” said Gale.

Sports through a team creates its own community for its players, and luckily was able to do just that for Brown.

“It [was what] made a lot of his friends… [soccer] brought a lot more people closer to him,” said Kumur, Brown’s closest friend.

As Brown’s friends noticed how soccer helped him navigate his way through a new community in Italy, being able to play soccer after his move to Central Kitsap has created many of the same opportunities.

“The people on my team… meant [that] on my first day I saw someone I knew, somebody I could talk to,” said Brown “[It] always helps a little bit,”.

So, as Brown makes his way into an ever evolving American high school culture and begins to meet new people, he adapts and changes while he begins to welcome Central Kitsap’s offers.

“He’s a lot more confident in himself… changes in the way he thinks and his ideas,” reflects Kurum.

Even with Brown’s friends miles away in Europe, they manage to stay in close contact; through video calls and many nights gaming, so his friends have been able to recognize how Brown has grown and changed since his move back.

“He’s matured [since he’s moved],” said Gale.

With friends back in Italy there to support him and keep his friendships close, Brown takes the cultural differences he has known and flourishes within the Central Kitsap community.