For 19 years of my life, I was so content with not seeing the world. I had never left the country and quite honestly, had very little interest in doing so. The USA is great. I had everything I’d ever needed. I had my friends, my family, a great school, and all around just a great, very comfortable life. What I didn’t have was perspective. Because I was so content in what I had, I never saw a need to expand out of my little bubble- and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that your bubble should always be expanded.

Leaving the country didn’t immediately blow my mind. The airport was very similar to those in the US and even downtown Vienna reminded me of Michigan Avenue, but then again, we were definitely in the shopping district. McDonald's had a different menu and we paid in Euros and not dollars, but other than that, everything seemed basically the same.

I will definitely say part of that could have been the fact that I was surrounded by a group of 40 other people from Illinois, but I thought I’d feel different.

On the morning of day two in Austria, we left for the Alps to go skiing for a week. It was during this time that I started to gain a larger perspective of the world. The train ride from Vienna to Salzburg was not like any train ride I had taken before. We did not pass through suburbs after suburbs, but rather there were wide-open spaces with small towns peaking out from them. Instead of seeing lots of chain restaurants and highways on the ride, castles and mountains appeared.

It was in this time when I began to realize that everything I knew about the world was only one small sliver of it. The comfort that once surrounded my life was not there in the same way it once was. My family was thousands of miles away. My closest friends, girls from my sorority, or even friends from home did not surround me anymore. I was no longer on campus and completely out of my element. I was basically starting from scratch in every respect. This realization popped the bubble I lived in for so long and allowed me to really start seeing that there was more to the world than watching The Bachelor and eating Portillo’s.

My perspective of the world was completely shattered the moment I saw the Alps for the first time. The only words I have to describe them is pure awe- pictures will never do them justice. I am (now) a firm believer that you really don’t know the world until you realize how awesome Mother Nature is. As great as cornfields are, seeing mountains allowed me to physically see how different regions of the world are from each other.

I am no longer content with having a narrow minded view of what the world is and I am no longer content with not seeing it for myself. Although I have left a lot behind I am beginning to gain perspective in ways only traveling has to offer. Why limit yourself to a small view of the world? Why not leave our bubble and go experience it for yourself?