How has traveling affected you?

Traveling is something that almost everyone experiences. Wether traveling to another city, state, or even continent, you can experience or learn something new from it. I have been lucky enough to travel pretty often with my family or even alone. My family loves to travel and could do it all the time if possible. Unfortunately, my sister and I typically have a lot of commitments to sports, etc. that prevent us from traveling too often. However, we almost always travel over breaks such as Mardi Gras break, Christmas break, and Thanksgiving break. Up until last year, I had always traveled with my family or friends and had only been around the states. This changed last summer when I decided to travel to Maui, Hawaii alone!

Now you're probably thinking how did I travel alone, and I wasn't completely alone. I traveled to Hawaii for a camp with boys and girls around my age from around the world. Going into this I was extremely excited to get to experience a new state I had dreamed about visiting. The only problem was I was going with no one I knew which made me super nervous but I was looking forward to making new friends, which I did. The entire trip completely affected the way I think and how I appreciate things to this day. It also introduced me to some super cool people I still talk to. While I was at camp we slept in tents, cooked all of our own meals, and showered once a week! This aspect of the camp made me appreciate things that I had always taken for granted such as my bed and shower. It also made me so appreciative of my parents for everything they do for me such as allowing me to go to Hawaii, something many people would love to do. Being in Hawaii surrounded by the beautiful landscape and getting to do fun activities like hiking and surfing, inspired me to continue traveling and meeting new people. This summer I will travel to South Africa and I could not be more excited to see what I will gain from this trip.