This summer I went on a trip to Europe that was the best experience of my life. I visited and explored Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales, and England. Along the way I made life long friends and met amazing people. I will admit, that before going on this trip I was a little afraid but after going and experiencing everything that I did it was such an eye opener and I find that traveling doesn't scare me as much anymore.
â–º Quarter Finalist 2011 Teen Travel Writing Scholarship
While on this trip I learned not only of the culture, the people, and the geography, but I also learned about myself. I learned about the kind of person I am and who I can be. Change comes from within. There was one night when we went to go see a show in London. We didn't know at first what exactly we were going to see but when we found out we were all estatic. We were going to be seeing Micheal Jackson's "Thriller." Sitting there and watching the performance I pondered about the person he was and his impact on the world. It's amazing the change he made in this world which ultimately brought me to the question, how did he make such a change? The answer finally came to me when I heard his song "Man in the Mirror." The message is all in the chorus. " I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I"m asking him to change his ways, And no message could've been any clearer, If you wanna make the world a better place, Take a look at yourself and then make a change yey…" Change really does begin with us and going on this trip helped me to see that. I remember asking myself several times, how am I going to change the world on this trip? I'm not even sure how to make such a big change that would change millions of lives! By the end of the show I realized that the point of the trip was making a change in ourselves becasue we can't make a change in the world if we don't like what we see in ourselves. It's amazing how much we hold back in life but on this trip I finally let go and just enjoyed.
The whole trip was life changing for me. It helped me to see me for once. It helped me to develop a more complex and deeper understanding of not only myself but of others as well. It's funny how we believe that people from other countries are so different from ourselves and our country. But they're really not. They may live differently from us on a few accounts, and they may have different cultural traditions, and they may have their own language but aren't they still living life? Don't they face the same problems we do in life? We're all the same. Difference is just a gift given to us. We are allowed to be whoever we want to be and express ourselves in whichever way we want to. Difference is also what makes life so interesting. This trip was a different experience for me, something I thought I would never be able to do. I'm so glad I got to go and experience everything that I did. I was able to become a part of a unique family as well, my delegation. Together, we saw, loved, explored, and experienced.
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