Our Foundation, Where the Mountains Meet the Water
Standing on a rock, overlooking the fjord with small ships crawling along, he turned to me. Kåre said, “This is where your great, great, grandfather stood and dreamed of America.” Never before...
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It Didn’t Bother Grandpa
When we arrived at the secluded, run-down looking beach house, it was just about the opposite of paradise. The cracked and peeling chalk white paint, the jungle of palm trees and overgrown greenery...
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Quito’s Canines
Where do I go when I want to stand on the equator but don’t want to sweat and definitely don’t like mosquitoes? Quito, Ecuador. The top of the Andes Mountains. South America. An elevation so high...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Beyond the Brass Handle
In first grade, my teacher asked us to bring in postcards from all the exotic places we’d been in our lives. My friends brought back little cards with photographs of beautiful beaches, tall towers,...
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A Different Type of Language
I wake up in a wooden hotel, the musty smell of morning fills the air. I get out of bed, hearing the creaking of the wooden floors beneath my feet. The entire hotel must have heard this through the...
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The Balcony
The four hour and thirty minute drive to Kemah, Texas was enough to give me the audacity to jump out the window and join the bugs as they splat against the passing cars. I sleep half the time and...
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A Stitched Portrait of a Chinese Garden
To the left of my bed is my most prized possession: a collection of pictures, each representing a place explored and a lesson learned. My love for travel stemmed from a young curiosity towards adventure...
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A Mandir Medley
The sun sparkled high on this specific Sunday morning in Chicago, the weather perfect for the cultural encounter that awaited me. Yet, I was hesitant to interact with a society whose values and traditions...
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Foxes and Persimmons: Defining the Hoosier State
Our small group of teenagers huddled together as we followed our counselor into the clearing. Not three feet before us, the ground fell away into an earthen waterfall of rock and creeper vines. Thousands...
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My Heart of Turquoise
I had never seen so many junipers in my life. The green, bushy plants stretched for miles into the desert of New Mexico like they could go on forever. We were far outside the city limits...
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One Love
I ease my water shoes into the chilly water, trusting our leader to guide us safely through the Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Our excursion group stayed together as directed: holding hands...
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Enduring Burdens as an Ally of the World
When we entered the Cibeles Palace in Madrid Sunday morning, trailed by a few early spring gusts, it was virtually empty, besides employees and a few Madrilenians tucked in corners of the offered reading...
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Spiritual Experiences in Switzerland
Her hand rested comfortably on my shoulder as we watched planes take off into the inky sky like birds in a sporadic flock. "Before you know it, you'll be on the other side of the ocean," my mother whispered...
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Mortality and Sea Lions
I am standing on a cliff staring out at the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Below me sea lions wail to each other as they crowd the rocky crags of the cliffs, and I am in complete awe of just how...
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A Rainbow of Silver and Grey
My white knuckles were frozen as I clutched the metal railing. Its silvery color glistened in the light. It was actually quite beautiful: The rainbow of greys...
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My Unique New York Trip
Glimpsing out our train's family room window I watched as, complete with the new World Trade building's opening that morning, the New York City skyline slowly became swallowed in a hazy mist of shrinking...
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The Guava Man’s Love
It is early in the morning, and my eyes remain closed. The room is small, antique, made of solid rock, dark and cold, but filled with the life of my family. My mother quickly comes to the small bed...
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Dolphins and Sea Lions and Whales, Oh Alaska!
Imagine this: you stand on a dock beside a silver boat, preparing to board. The spruce-scented air caresses your face, promising gentle waves in the blue water of Resurrection Bay. Before you step onto...
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Dancing in a Dream
The mountains beckon. No, wait. Not just them. Green blades of grass pressing flat...
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Don’t Rock the Boat
An hour and a half north of Seattle, in a town called Anacortes, lies a tourist trap that comprises of a gift shop full of whale memorabilia and a dock along which are a slew of...
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Sometimes All It Takes Is Applesauce
I love Disney, and I was rather...
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Open Your Eyes and Let Yourself Fly
We arrived at the La Casa Del Arbol in Baños, Ecuador. I was overwhelmed with beauty as I gazed over the mountain...
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Musings on My Father While in Moscow
My Dad always loved Russian literature. Every once in a while he’d plop down one of his books on my bed for me to read, but I never would pick it up. The books’ slow,...
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Lies of Pond Painters
When I heaved myself onto the dock, I was tinted yellow. I was also slightly oily, with subtle odors of mud and sulfur. I grinned at my reflection and breathed deeply, inebriated by the scent of crisp...
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Peculiar Friends: The Tale of A Goat And His Boy
The heat of the Saharan sun beat down on our minivan full of sweaty, tired tourists. The convection oven with wheels intensified my hunger and my deep craving for salty, deep-fried Americanism:...
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Assisi: St. Francis’ Fertile Fields
The golden glow of the pastoral Tuscan countryside had lulled us into a stupor from which our tour guide had so rudely awakened us. He announced that we were taking a stop outside Assisi for lunch, claiming...
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Nature’s Performance
The sun was beckoning for me to join him on his daily journey of rising and setting. Usually he goes on his task of bringing forth the day and making way for the night without igniting...
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Above the Clouds
I yawned for what felt like the twentieth time to clear my ears. The sign out my window said 5,000 feet. The road...
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Stormy Faces of My Past
My grandparents live in dusty, old photo albums. Like dreams I’ve never had, I see pictures of my grandmother holding my infant form and my grandfather sitting...
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A Thousand and One Nights in Persia
You are not supposed to break into a Mosque from a second story window – especially not in Iran. I scamper across the...
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Traveling to Make History
As the school bell rang on the last day, I could not control my extreme feeling of excitement. I opened the classroom’s door and ran insanely fast to the bus. I did not mind the burning sun. I just...
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I Czeched Out: Flying Out of My World and Into Another
Two words. Air. Sickness. I had attempted to prepare myself for the 14 hour “adventure”, but there...
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Parallel Lives
We walk, wearing our shoes branded with names that do not belong in this field of debris and misplaced belongings. “This was our home,” my mother...
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Light from Broken Windows
My family’s footsteps were quiet on the damp earth. That was fitting; loud noise seemed gaudy here. Even though the broken walls opened straight to the sky, the abbey retained its reverence—noise,...
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Natural Beauty and Human Strength
I spent three weeks in León, Nicaragua this summer, and almost every day, Nicaragua surprised me. My experience in León couldn’t have been more different than my life in the United States, and it...
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Adventure Was Waiting
In 8th grade I was that kid who would leave my parents for about 3 days, having had enough freedom and adventure, and come back home as quickly as possible. But that completely changed when my mom convinced...
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Endings and Beginnings
We had accepted a quest. A wonderful,...
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Getting Lost, Being Found
I am alone. Five days have gone by on my trip to France and Italy, and my geography teacher lets me roam the streets of Assisi, Italy, alone. My Romanesque sandals aid my feet across the cobblestoned...
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People in Paris
I received news that Paris was a journey foreseeable...
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