My Trip to the Moon
The bus took us to many impressive sights that day; geysers spraying water and steam like enormous earthbound teapots, thundering waterfalls cascading into fresh, pure rivers, the cavernous crack of the...
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My India
Fear. Bombs. Blood. Screaming. TERROR. This was all I could see, hear, and think about while visiting one of Mumbai, India’s exclusive malls. All I could do was watch the people in the mall, with...
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The Becoming of Appreciation
My buoyant ambiance is dampened...
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Worlds Apart, Closer than Ever
It was a 24 hour flight from Maryland to Ilo Ilo City, Philippines. It was how my family and I spent our Christmas, which was also my older sister’s birthday. But it was a dream we had all shared since...
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With Clouds Beneath My Feet
I stood in front of a small wood building that almost blended into the alpine landscape around it. An overstuffed backpack dangled off my shoulders, full of rented mountaineering gear that I though made...
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Most Cars Don’t Come Back: A Final Trip to Croatia
The airports in Germany won't allow you to take rented vehicles into eastern Europe. This puzzled my parents and I, because in two weeks we were about to take a road trip to Croatia. We...
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The Other Side of Jamaica
A perfect picture: a palm tree on a deserted beach, a starlit sky, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I dig my toes into the sand trying to take in every inch, every sound, and every scent...
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Niagara Falls
A family of three is going for a boat ride down the Niagara River. They are enjoying themselves when suddenly an unthinkable thing happens. The motor on their boat quits working. Normally this would not...
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If Thoreau Went Backpacking
The second night was much like the first. I stripped off my pack, this time remembering to clear an area, and I even had time to cook dinner before crawling into my mobile grave. I felt a short-lived...
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Costa Rica
It was Costa Rica, a vision of crowded, colorful houses and flat tin roofs caked in flaky, thick rust, and hillocks of kaleidoscopic litter cascading down the dirty streets. It was the sun, the blistering...
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My Jamaican Heart
On February 21, 2008, I boarded a plane for Montego Bay, Jamaica, excited for what God had in story for me. Little did I know that I would leave part of my heart in Jamaica. During the eleven days that...
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Girls Trip: Massanutten, VA
Girls Week Out. No dads allowed, no boys, just females in all our high-maitenance glory. One week at a ski resort in Virginia: five girls in four rooms, two stories, two kitchens,...
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Southern Africa
During months of anticipation, I knew Africa would be life-changing...
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Luvianos
We were to depart from Dulles International Airport, at 5:00pm, and arrive at Mexico City International airport at 9:30pm. Those were the simple instructions given to my eight year old sister, my eleven...
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Discovering the Roots of My Personality
In Memoriam On August 19, 1692, Martha Carrier of Andover was hung as witch in Salem, Massachusetts. She is one of the witches about whom many people know nothing. To me, she is the most interesting...
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An Unexpected Opportunity
Nigel no Monogatari (The Story of Nigel) On the humid evening of August...
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N.O.L.A. and Me
The last week of August 2005, a natural disaster struck the southern United States and impacted millions of lives. Hurricane Katrina caused grief, tragedy, and despair. But for...
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The Experiment In International Living: Turkey 2007
I pushed a seed...
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7,000 Miles Away But Right Next Door: My Trip to Beijing
Orange, blue, red, yellow signs touting the taxi cabs, the restaurants, the money changing stations lined the airport terminal. The air, an acrid, foreign aroma filling my lungs, left me with an indecipherable...
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A Climb Up Mount Tai During Our Summer Vacation in China
The eighteen flights of precipitous, stone steps soar upwards, a 5000-foot ladder into the clouds. On overcast days the effect is eerie: just yards ahead, the path is hidden in swirling mist. There is...
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Yup, I Brought My Calculator
There's no way around it. I'm a math nerd. It was the night before my first trip out of the United States, to the distant land of Egypt. I was soon to discover a realm of striking poverty, ancient architecture,...
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Hope in Times of Helplessness
Sometimes we may feel we are hanging on by a thread, and often that thread is the one thing keeping us connected to humanity. On December 3, 2004 as I walked into Dairy Queen I already had a premonition...
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A Bunch of Really Old and Really Tall Trees: Sequoia National Park
When my parents first informed my brothers and me that our summer vacation was going to be spent at Sequoia National Park in southern California, I was disappointed. We were going...
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Amazon
Yeah, sure I'm in IB Biology and my mom is a conservation biologist, but I'm not quite the rainforest type. As a seventeen year old, I prefer our nocturnal sleeping schedules as opposed to the early jungle...
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Auschwitz
By the time November comes around in school, the band room is buzzing with rumors of what the next band trip will be. Last year, countries like China, Italy, and Spain were coming out of the mouths of...
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Unbreakable in New Orleans
My mother collects Christmas ornaments. She buys them everywhere we go. Every vacation, road trip, journey -- each place we visit becomes a decoration to hang proudly on our tree....
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The Forbidden Island of Kaho’olawe
Kaho'olawe; also known as Kohemalamalama'okanaloa, is translated as "the holy genitals of the Ocean God Kanaloa" and is the only island throughout Polynesia to be named after a God. The following are my...
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My Not So Audrey-Hepburn-Wind-Blowing-In-Your-Hair-Roman-Holiday Kind of Experience
St. Augustine once proclaimed that "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." With blistered feet, rain-drenched hair, and aching bones, my first introduction to the European...
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