As an avid traveler, I can successfully say I have seen some of the most beautiful areas in the world. When I was a little girl, I always wanted to explore different places, whether it was the top tree limbs in my front yard or the corn field behind my house. My mind was always going, thinking about the beautiful world we live within, and how it's beauty is not hard to find. Though, as I grew up, I began yearning for greater exploration to places far beyond my fence and my backyard. Such longing has lead me to places such as Hawaii, London, Paris, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. However, this summer, I was fortunate enough to visit North Eastern Europe on a nine day cruise. In the weeks leading up to the cruise, I became a little girl again, desperately longing to explore the cities that lie ahead of me as well as immerse myself in a kind of worldly beauty I have yet to see. The kind that is deeply rooted in history and customs that differ from America and the other countries I have visited. Rather than tell you all about the monuments and beautiful sights I saw in cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg, because truly that could take days, I want to iterate the things that I learned on that trip and how it changed me.

My cruise this past summer was perhaps the best few days I have experienced, and I met so many wonderful people on that trip by going out of my comfort zone and introducing myself, which is something I usually do not tend to do. In doing so, I formed relationships that have lasted even till now, and I created memories that will fill me with enough happiness to last a lifetime. Through meeting so many wonderful people from amazing and exotic places all over the world I learned one thing: we are not all that different from each other. We all just want someone to experience life with us. I was able to converse with people from Mexico, Qatar, London, and California at the same time in a manner that made it seem like we had known each other forever. We never let our cultural differences define or prohibit us from extending a helping hand, telling a funny joke, or just merely spending time with one another. And so, as the trip progressed, and I saw more beautiful places that I have only dreamed about, I also saw the beauty of the human spirit through the friendships I created. I am forever grateful for that trip and those people- they know who they are- because, even though it only lasted for nine days, it promoted growth within myself that will last forever. And the most important thing that I learned was that relationships like the ones I made this past summer can be cultivated anywhere. That idea alone is what has made me outgoing in college, with the hope of creating the same types of friendships and bonds as the ones I made on the cruise.