To Italy with Chocha
Chocha is my grandmother. She was born in Rome, Italy and had promised me since I was a small child that she would one day take me to visit her homeland. This was a day that I dreaded! You might...
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Reflections
Whether it was the feeling of being overwhelmed or the opportunity to be pushed to my limits in a way that words couldn't even begin to describe, whichever it may have been, it...
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Australia Done On Wheels
There are things a person learns when they find them self in a wheelchair. For instance, how water fountains are never user-friendly, and how to adjust to being eye-level with...
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My trip to Puerto Rico
I spent seven days this summer in Lares, Puerto Rico, building an altar for the International Bible Baptist church — a trip sponsored by my church in Warminster, Pennsylvania....
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Life Changing
To say I’m uncomfortable would be an understatement. With a cold sweat, I wake up from a dream where I’m running. It’s about 4:00 in the morning. I’m nauseous. I’m about to suffocate from...
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Vaccation
I wish that you, The panel of judges, or however the winner is picked for a scholarship, could see my family in action. You would give me the money as soon as possible and...
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2010 Global Youth Leadership Conference in China
The only thing more challenging than eating eel, octopus and jelly fish is writing a teen travel essay using 600 words or less. The only thing almost as exciting as experiencing Chinese culture firsthand...
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My Life-Changing Traveling Experience
During the summer of 2008 I traveled to the Choctaw Reservation located in Mississippi. My church goes there every summer to teach Vacation Bible School to the Choctaw...
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A “Thriller” Night in Biko, Mali
I shifted in the metal folding chair, picking at the threads of my shirt. Nervous, I glanced at my host family, who surrounded me in a semi-circle. Thirty eyes stared expectantly back at me. Intimidated,...
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Take Time to Notice a Sunset
There are a few places in this part of the world where life is not easy, where the human inhabitants do not quibble over minor inconveniences, and where the elements of nature rule what is allowed and...
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Band Across Seas
In the beginning of April of 2009, I was still in my freshman year at Vista High School. I was a member of the Vista Regimental Marching Band, and I was going to the United Kingdom with this group...
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The French Connection
I had just graduated from middle school, and my french class had decided that we wanted to visit France...
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Mission Trip to Iquitos, Peru
In July of 2008, I packed a suitcase full of bug spray and work clothes and traveled with my twin brother and fourteen adults from my Nazarene church to Iquitos, Peru. Our mission was simple- help to...
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The Impact Europe had on Me
Last Summer I had the experience of a lifetime. My friend and her mom were traveling to England to stay with a friend of the family and they asked me to come explore Europe with them! This is something...
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San Francisco by GoCar
The day I became a tourist attraction started out with tunnel safety lights flying past as we rode the Bart into San Francisco. Riding a clunky but reliable cable car,...
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The Family Resort at Lake Coeur d’ Alene
Every year I take an eight hour journey to a place that I think is heaven on earth, Coeur d’ Alene Lake, Idaho. My family of four: my dad, mom, my little brother, and I all pile into our white GMC...
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Meeting the Stones of Stonehenge
It first started with a trickle. Those few drops of cold water had landed on my head, as I walked around the ancient city of Bath. My friends and I had just come out of the building housing the Roman...
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Teen Travel Writing
In the summer of 2007 my family took off for a 3-week long road trip to the Grand Canyon. This is the same trip my mother took with her family as a child. She was determined we would do the...
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The Blossoming Grape
As they plant the first seed of a future harvest, I watch in amazement. Sitting on the ground, looking past this one small seed, my eyes are...
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I (Now) Love New York
“I’ll go, but I really hate New York City.” “Of course you do. This is coming from the girl who hated...
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Change
Four hours… four hours; for four hours I sat in the passenger seat of my mom’s sky-blue Honda Odyssey while she drove to Tallahassee. For four hours I gripped the armrest of my chair out of terror...
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Aspetta (Travels in Italy)
The first week in Italy, I lost my watch at (approximately) 12:47 pm. For someone always in control, I now felt powerless without it. I had relied on its safe rigidity, but now I stood in the piazza,...
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Band and Choir Trip to Disney
I was waiting to go on a trip for most of High School to one of the happiest places in the world, Disney. The excitement grew as the...
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My Travel Experience
It is November 22nd, 2007: Thanksgiving Day. I am in “America Sings,” a group formed by my chorus class, along with many others from across the nation. We all came to the Big...
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The Keys to a Successful Trip to El Salvador
On June 15th, 2009, I departed on an amazing adventure with a group of people from Raleigh, NC to a foreign land, widely known as El...
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Vacation with an Octogenarian
Hello, buongiorno, hola, bonjour, guten morgen
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