Sawdust
“Hola chico/chiquita! Como te llama?” I say the words hesitantly, and my tongue feels like it is covered with sawdust as I speak the few Spanish words I know. To say that I am loud would...
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An Amateur Wanderlust
I had never left the country without my parents. I live minutes away from the Mexican border yet I've never crossed it. The last intercontinental voyage I embarked on was to the Philippines with...
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Becoming Beijing
Sticking needles into my arm, they told me not to tense up. I shivered, the pins sitting in my skin. The Chinese nurses seemed to know what they were doing though, claiming their techniques would...
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Capturing Liberties
I wrote this post over the summer during my one-month stay in Uganda, Africa. As a seventeen-year-old photographer, I had the opportunity to live in an apartment on site...
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My Journey
My Personal Journey & Adventure My family and I had been dreaming about visiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona since before I was born. It was always...
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A Trip To Honduras
On Febuary 18, 2012 I took the trip of a lifetime. As corny as that sounds, I could not phrase this experience in a more truthful way. An old teacher of mine, seven classmates, and myself traveled...
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Family Heritage.
Last summer, I traveled halfway across the world to China. My grandparents from both sides of my family currently live there. Most of my family lives in China, so whenever I go there I get bombarded...
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Why I’m Not A Robot
I used to be a robot. Pre-Summer 2011 I was only functioning. I breathed, talked, and walked like a human, but I never quite felt human. All I cared for were grades and test scores; I didn’t sing,...
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Journey To The Dominican Republic
As the runway fell away beneath the plane my stomach dropped with it. I shut my eyes and fought the fear creeping into my mind as the flight attendant alerted us that we'd land in Santo Domingo in two...
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Journey to Jordan
I applied about two months ago for a key, and that key was going to open a door to another world for me. I applied to go on a trip to Jordan to learn about my roots, Arabic culture, and to...
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Vacationing in the Keys
From the moment I know the trip has been planned, my mind anticipates the relaxation, and when I see the low, aquamarine median wall out of the car window on U.S. 1, I know I’m close. Salt water...
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Flags and Footprints
I came around the bend on the wooded path and gasped. Rarely have I ever seen anything quite as stunning as the view that was before...
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Bravery at the top of a temple
The heat of the sun was beating down...
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Vietnam and Cambodia
Our first stop in Phenom Pehn was Tol Slong, a former prison during the Cambodian genocide. Before the genocide it was a high school, but the Khmer Rouge converted it into a prison and place...
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Getting Lost in The Floating City
We docked at the harbor not far from city’s center, we walked through the knee high water. The tour director told us how Venice can flood...
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Life Changing
In the fall of 2009, my parents and I took a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea for 12 days, stopping at 9 different ports in 5 different countries. I always have a great time on cruises, but I knew...
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Teens Westward Bound: It’s More Than a Trip, It’s an Experience You’ll Never Forget!
After packing for days for Teens Westward Bound, the day of departure finally arrived. As my parents drove me to Davidson College, the point of departure, I suddenly began to feel ...
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Find Your Independence… 6,000 Miles Away in Laos and Thailand!
The reason that banks created credit cards was because everyone was looking for a solution to get away from that noisy, heavy, constant reminder in their front pocket: loose change....
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My Life Changing Trip to Syria
The excitement that built up inside me over the year was finally expelled when I saw my parents carry the suitcases upstairs into our bedrooms. The leftover smell of the spices...
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The perspective changing trip to Costa Rica
An abrupt silence fell over the previously boisterous bus. I had never seen anything resembling such an area in my entire life. I could not have imagined anything similar. Compared...
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Welcome to the Jungle!
“Welcome to Jamaica! We got fun and games!” bellowed my fellow team members as we bumped down a dirt road. I only paid half my attention to their Guns ‘N Roses parody, for...
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Back to the One I Love
Last summer, my mother, sister and I took a 14 hour long flight back to our roots in Guangzhou, China. The last time I visited China was three years ago and the wait was long overdue....
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Two Weeks, Two Visits, Two Families
My family has always been one that enjoys traveling, however, in all of the vacations we have taken, our trip to Spain is the most interesting adventure. The vacation started,...
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To Grandmother’s House We Go
Every few years, my family packs the car and we head to my grandmother’s house for the holidays. My grandmother lives in a small farm community just west of Chicago, called...
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No’ar Hadash Summer 2010; Discovering My Second Home, Israel.
It is July 13th, 2010, local Israeli time, 7:15am, I am on an ElAl flight from Newark, New Jersey to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. I am with a Reconstructionist youth...
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My Hut Is Your Hut
Pitch dark, ten degrees hotter than outside, a stench of manure. I can barely make out the outline of a woman, or rather a girl of twenty, who sits in silence as she feeds her...
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Who Can Get The Closest?
It was reckless. It was reckless, stupid, and dangerous. But, it was just the rush I was looking for in my Yellowstone vacation. Standing outside of the Gardiner, Montana Gateway...
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Getting to the Penny
When my guidance counselor suggested that I visit colleges before applying, I don’t think that this is what she had in mind. There were six of us-my mom, aunt, brother, sister,...
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My Life Changing Experience
Fall 2009, I was chosen to be on the leadership team at my high school. I was put in charge of a Christmas shoebox drive for Haiti. I was excited to help collect shoeboxes...
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