The Importance Of My Trip To Europe

A lifetime is divided by many years, years into days, days into hours, and hours into minutes. But out of these minutes, some stand out the most making our most memorable of our memories. Whether you felt joy, anger, or sadness, it is the way that we felt at that second what makes us remember that moment and what made us change from who we were. It is an experience where you know you can’t go back. In the following passage, I will talk about my rite of passage.

Hiking through Rocky Mountain National Park the beauty was overwhelming, the next day our team was serving in downtown Denver in a Street reach meal service to people suffering from homelessness. The beauty of the mountains was overwhelming but then we surrounded by this vast issue of homelessness. Both of these moving experiences, along with many other moments during the week, that made this trip personally impactful and helped me to see the world in a more vivid light.

Unlike many of my peers, I was not content to use this period as an opportunity to get drunk and sleep in a different corner of the globe. Not that I’m trying to come off as superior or condescending, I have no right for that. I started off in Europe just like everyone else, moving from Paris to Rome to Zurich to Vienna to Berlin and then Prague, indulging in the careless excesses that tend to characterize these trips. But at the same time, I wanted more than that. I wanted to ride the back of an ox drawn cart down a withered trail to places my fellow townsfolk would have never laid eyes on. I wanted to slum it in the homes of destitute village inhabitants despite the fact that I could easily afford a four star hotel. I wanted something new, something unseen, some amazing forgotten

Even though I studied harder than I ever had before, I still did not reach the grade I thought I deserved. He told me it was because the student who shared a desk with me earned a C and it was partially my fault. This lesson taught me that life is not just about reaching personal success but helping others reach theirs too. My schools CFX’s (Companion’s of Francis Xavier) were another way I have lived out service, spirit, and intellect. During summer vacations after my sophomore and junior year, I would spend hours in the sun hammering nails or digging the foundation where a new home would be built. At the end of every grueling day, we would discuss the reasons why this certain group of people were impoverished and the systematic ways that we could fix it. These trips helped me grow as a person and realize my place in today’s society. It also made me look at larger issues in our world such as homelessness and the border issues - I worked in solidarity building homes with people that were impacted by these matters. One of my greatest moments of service and spirit came on my senior year trip. It was Easter Mass and my group was in the

I knelt beside the form of my dog, a friend from birth, dying. His trusting eyes looked into mine as he breathed his last breath. I cried more that day than I had ever cried in my entire life. One of my best friends, dead. But no matter how sad and horrifying that day was for me, it will always be implanted in my memory as the first time I ever lost someone close to me.

At my elementary school, the more you aged, and thus changed grades, the better the field trips became. In the third grade, I had graduated from field trips around my community and my school and was finally allowed to venture into surrounding neighborhoods in search of whatever educational task was at hand. My class, with the help and organization from my teacher Mrs. Budde as well as a large number of parent chaperones, went to Eaton Canyon Nature Preserve to learn more about the environment and how it operates. This nature

Travelling around the world is an experience of a lifetime. Our school is part of the Young Round Square program among 150 other private schools. The Round Square program believes that for our generation of kids to be fully prepared for everything that we’re going to embrace as an adult, we should be able to see all the things we have in common, but also our differences and how we can show everyone what respect and understanding can do the world. Being able to even apply for going to India, Peru, San Francisco, Dominican Republic or England is an amazing chance. Peru is the trip I’m applying for. Not only do I want to go there because of all the breathtaking sites, but because of what I’ll learn. Helping to build a new greenhouse and repairing older greenhouses, needs a lot of teamwork and communication.

Sometimes when we have experiences that change our lives we have trouble finding the words to describe what happened. The event that changed my life was one of those experiences. Earlier this year I went to Detroit with some friends for a festival called Movement. The festival is three days, Saturday to Monday, in downtown Detroit just across the lake from Canada. The artists that play there are legends of underground house music and other genres of electronic music. This music was created in Detroit, so the locals have a lot of pride in this scene. Even the mayor declared the week of the festival “Detroit Techno Week,” recognizing the tourism and the revenue that is generated in light of this event.

The summer adventure that consisted of two college students in a large city. It was an adventures that would allow friend that enjoy photographer to not only allow them to do what they love, but to also build the bond and explore the world together. This trip wasn’t something that was planned for a few months, but instead somehow happen over two weeks. In the beginning I felt that this was going to be another dream that would never come to reality, but it did. After stepping foot off the Delta flight at JFK, that is when I realize that we really did make this trip happen. Driving through the different burrows of New York really forced the gears in my head to start shifting as I would begin to think about what type of shot I was looking to take.

In tenth grade I was enrolled in conformation class at my parish church. This was the first time I had really started getting involved with my Church parish. The big event everyone was talking about for the upcoming summer was the mission trip to Jamaica. My first thoughts about this trip were to stay away from it. I found myself not wanting to get involved with a huge event like this. Leaving the United States is something that I have never done before. A whole week away from home is something that scared me at the time. I kept it in the back of my head throughout the year and the time came to make my decision. The decision I made would, without me realizing it, change my life forever. My trip to Jamaica would teach me just how blessed I am.

The adrenaline filled my whole body. It was amazing, so many things I had heard about and anticipated all before me. This past year my class took a trip to Washington D.C. I recall the amazing stature and splendor of the Washington Monument. I remember standing in the Lincoln Memorial and reading all the scriptures of the Bible that were written in his monument. The Vietnam Memorial filled me with both sorrow and respect for all the 58,000 who died serving in the war. I took as many pictures as I could at the Iwo Jima Memorial. I felt a connection to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, as I stood at his memorial stunned by his wise words. My favorite of his quotes,” The Ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, But where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

My Destination experience inspired me to not let my friends stop me from doing something that I want to do. For example, if I wanted to go play soccer but my friends did not want to, I would still go play soccer because that is what I wanted to do. I try to remember

Imagine getting away from the monotony of your everyday life. You can lie on the beach sipping a cool drink miles away from your worries of getting a paper done or helping a customer at work. You can be on top of a mountain overlooking beautiful lands that are different from your own backyard. Half of the class has taken a vacation less than five times in their lifetimes, but let’s face that most of those probably included those little family vacations to Disneyland. But, all of you said that you planned to travel someday. So, why not do it sooner than later? One of the reasons for not traveling that many of you put is not having time because of school or work. Also, one of your major concerns is

As a child, people will always remember certain destinations that stick with them that made a good impression. I have a place that not only made a good impression, it changed me. It made me think off all the things in life people take for granted; places, people, activates. This place brought all though special things in life to one place where I can enjoy them all at the same time. The Oregon coast. Traveling there, as a kid was always special. Waking up early in the morning and driving the long trip there, going through forests, valleys, and cities.

There are certain memories that we have that we can remember like they happened yesterday. Many of those memories that have special meaning to me were of family vacations when I was young growing up with my brothers and sisters. Family memories are important to many of us because they take us back to a time or place that was special. One particular family vacation I remember vividly, and it’s a story I have shared with my kids on many occasions. Over the 40 or more years since that memorable vacation, I still smile and think how lucky I was growing up with a mother and father that did everything to give their kids an unforgettable memory.