Spending a Year in Nigeria
When my parents decided to start their family in America, they instilled their Nigerian values in us children. Every morning, I would wake up to greet my parents with a "Good morning, mom! Good morning,...
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Playing the Right Hand
Flying across the country doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, but for a twelve-year-old who’s never gone past the east coast, traveling out west was bigger than life. Over the course of ten days,...
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Gordonton
My first foray into the North Carolina I was born to was in the late Fall of my sophomore year in High School. Adolescence is a time made for rebellion, and since my whole existence had been a middle...
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A Stroll in Berlin
If I’m honest about it, I was never grabbed by books about history when I was younger. I found it hard to connect personally...
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Merida, Mexico: An Authentic Taste of the Yucatan
Charming Merida is the capital of the Yucatan state. Its dreamy town center is bursting with crayon colored buildings and elegant Colonial architecture straight out of a Mexican fairytale....
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A New World in Guatemala
My head pressed on cool glass that vibrated my brain within my skull. I took a sip of my water, struggling to avoid biting my tongue as the jolting of the bus bounced...
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Wilmington, North Carolina has More than Beaches
Families all along the East Coast know that North Carolina boasts nearly endless miles of beautiful beaches. But did you know that the city of Wilmington, located on the state's southern coast, offers...
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A Tale of Two Worlds
I glance behind me, checking that my little sister is asleep on the bed as I slip out onto the balcony of our rented villa. It’s early evening in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, right after the heat of...
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The Fiction of Chicago: The City Behind The News
Bullets were as common as fireworks on the weekend of July 4th, 2016 in Chicago. More than 60 people were shot over the course of the weekend, and all anyone could talk about on my social media was...
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Expresso Shots, Butterfly Kisses and Sticky Hugs
Expresso shots, butterfly kisses, and sticky hugs are what I found in the small village of Villa Clara, Cuba. Culture shock began seeping in quickly, as I walked down the dirt streets littered by garbage...
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Go to Hell
The greatest piece of advice that I’ve ever been given that relates to learning about myself and making a palpable difference in the world was basically to “go to hell.”...
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A Scenic Stroll to 1975
Four hours, three airports, two flights, one bus ride; we were here. A sanctuary with greenery and decadent coloring, the aroma of Blackeyed Susans captivated my lungs; I felt at home, but more...
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Zorita de Las Gente
He was probably in his late twenties when he died. He was a Christian monk and a member of the Knights Templars of the order of Calatrava. He slept in his armor and he rarely bathed. Let’s call him...
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Strata of Wonders
My sandaled feet splashed the fine grains of sand and trampled across patches of tumbleweed. After two excruciating days during a heat wave at Las Vegas, with its dazzling “around the world” displays...
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Blue Skies and Sunsets
Every summer or Christmas since my third birthday, we’ve left the comforts of town life - the 2am donut runs or running out of milk and needing 15 minutes to buy a new gallon - to visit my grandparents...
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Sunrise Serenade — Hiking Navaho Peak, Washington
Some ideas are the product of meticulous planning and deliberate thinking, while others just seem to happen. When three friends and I decided to climb a 7,000 foot mountain at 3:00 AM to herald the sunrise...
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A 250 km/Hour Discovery
Fluttering skirts, rhythmic tapping of pointe shoes, dense air- the kind that is formed from hundreds of people holding their breaths in anticipation and admiration, gentle and perfectly apt music....
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My Soul for Santa Maria: Life Lessons Learned from a Volcano
4:00 a.m. is too early to be climbing volcanoes. I’m still dreaming as I wake up, crawling out of bed and into shorts, fumbling with shoelaces and hair ties. Everyone in in our little town of Xela is...
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I Got My LIFE at Junkanoo Beach!
My Grandmother is retired and travels extensively all the time. Typically, my younger brother and I are the beneficiaries of souvenirs that tell stories of cultures and civilizations all over the world....
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Weird Flocks Together
From the beginning of my memory, I have never had a typical mom. Never has she dyed her peppered hair, hid behind layers of make-up, and don’t even try to coax her into a pair of heels. Not only does...
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Swiss Sweets
Swiss cheese, Swiss chocolates, Swiss Alps, and Edelweiss must ring a few bells for everybody. Switzerland is known...
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Seeing All in Seattle
I lean my head against the cool window of the Link Light Rail, watching rain droplets race one another down the expanse of the glass; if I squint they look like tiny men in the foreground of Washington’s...
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A Trip to the Magical Town
Around thanksgiving of 2015, my family and I traveled to Zacatecas, Mexico. I’ve been to Mexico before however, this time I learned to enjoy another liestyle. After five hours in a cold plane flight...
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First Travels
In the Spring of 2015 I had the amazing opportunity to travel to France for a week. After my first international travel experience, I came to the realization that I have a strong passion to explore...
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Timeless Nonetheless
The black, bead-like eyes of hundreds of startled crabs seemed to twinkle as they caught the yellow glow streaming from my flashlight. Gazing
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Face to Face with a Foreign Bull
One summer vacation, my family and I spent it in, Colombia, where my parents were born and raised. I'd been once previously, but, now that I was older, I felt I could really take in the diverse beautiful...
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Where Humans and Wildlife Collide
The miniature howler monkey clung to its mother’s back as the older monkey undulated through the branches of the twisted tree. With one movement, the mother pushed off the bowing bough and transferred...
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More Than a Memory
I have admired this city in countless stock photos and numerous travel blogs. I draw a deep breath as a futile attempt to calm myself. The van jumps around the cobblestone road and I clumsily juggle...
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A Land of Juxtapositions
The air is heavy with humidity, but we are fortunate that the rainforest canopy shields us from the scorching rays of sunlight that beam down on this hot summer day. The trees surrounding us stretch...
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Memorable Moments From a Blank Itinerary
I peered down at the fried fish whose eyes bore back up into me and knew right then this trip was one for the books. I was accompanied by my newspaper advisor, three fellow reporters, and a chaperone,...
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The Rain, the Rock, and the Marmot
This past summer, my parents and I traveled to Yosemite National Park in California for what I can say was an adventure of epic proportions and grueling obstacles. Our goal was to conquer the Half Dome...
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Speaking French In Ecuador
Rule number one to traveling: Study the native language for more than a week. That was something I had not taken into serious consideration as I hopped onto my plane. My destination was...
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Transcending Language Barriers with Manners: Life Lessons from the Japanese
Waking up at five am is never pleasing, especially on vacation. But the blaring alarm signaled a new day, the promise of adventure. With my legs still stiff from the 14-hour flight, I arose and peered...
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The Locals Say “Nica”
People didn’t really get it when I said I was going to Nicaragua for spring break. “Isn’t that dangerous?” “Oh, is it for a mission trip?” and “Where even is that?” were only a few of...
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Ten Popsicle Toes
When my mother announced the family would be traveling to Iceland for Christmas my stomach dropped. A California girl, the mere thought of Iceland(!) during wintertime (!) made my toes curl, but there...
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A Privilege Hidden Among the Sierras
All my life, my father has taught me about adventuring in the world. My sister and I always tentatively listen when he mimicks stories about his backpack travels in Alaska, recalling sights of mother...
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Through Their Eyes
Through my eyes luxury was defined as expensive cars, five star restaurants, and high class living. But through theirs it was clean running water, a safe home, and enough food for the day. When I first...
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A Thousand Ones
The silence is so strong it hurts my ears. It’s as if the people around me are trying not to wake the souls that lie below our feet. The water around us seems shadowy, but I know what is there. It’s...
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The Blossoming of Compassion
"Anything will help. God bless you." "Mother of 4." "Homeless. In Need." Everyday as I drive to school I pass signs resembling these. I sit nervously tapping my foot on the gas pedal trying to...
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Florence, Oregon – A Sandlot Full Of Dune Buggy Fun
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area in coastal southern Oregon provides active families buckets of fun -- in a unique setting of enormous sand dunes near the town of Florence. No matter how...
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Life at 10,000 Feet
They told me oxygen would be scarcer, but they didn’t tell me it was the mountains that would take my breath away. I was deep in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, in a small village called Ollantaytambo....
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Navigating the Dark in the City of Light
Travel is the insane desire to become lost. Lost in a culture, a language, lost in ourselves. And when I decided to study abroad for a year, I was completely unaware of how my world would change, of how...
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Storming Castles and Hunting Dwarves in Poland
As a kid with an incredibly active imagination, I loved acting out the stories that my Mom read to me or what I saw in movies. I taped flashlights to my arms to shoot lasers like Buzz Lightyear, and built...
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A Grand Design
No one had to tell me to feel the way I did. I felt it all on my own. With depths as bottomless as the ocean, and craters so vast they seemed to spread across the world forever, the view was like nothing...
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International Deprogramming: The truth About Nigeria
“So there I was, spear in hand,” I recounted to my thoroughly American friends, “The lion charged at me, jaws agape, snarling like the devil himself.” They’re all paying rapt attention...
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China in Transit
Hangzhou, China is beautiful in the spring. The weather is lovely, the trees are in bloom, and if you look above the buildings, the sky is even blue. On the west lies a long, gleaming lake; on the east...
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A Night on Battlefield 1864
The night was cold but the air was clean, so clean that the only thing that had polluted the perfect scent of the wilderness was the smell of fresh pine burning beside our camp smoldering away into...
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Is that….pepper???
I looked at the Styrofoam plate that held the cheesy lasagna and closed my eyes trying to convince myself to take a bite. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention; it was covered in bugs, not pepper. I recently...
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