Last summer I got the chance to go to New York City on a mission trip with my church. The mission trip was amazing and gave me an opportunity to meet many people and step out of my comfort zone with my faith and the way of life I’ve always known growing up and experience something new.

Coming from a small town, the big apple was a shock for me, being stuck in small town life we seem to be stuck in our own ways of living and think everywhere is the same way of life as we experience it. After stepping off the plane in New York I noticed something different immediately about the people there, everyone was in a rush to get where they were going, they didn’t slow down for anything. No one made eye contact and smiled at each other as they passed each other like I do in public, every person was in in their own little world and didn’t want to be bothered, which didn’t stop us from stopping people and trying to share our faith with them.

Having a large group of Texans visit New York we stuck out like a sore thumb. We got plenty of looks and had a lot of people say we must be from Texas from hearing our accents and seeing the way some of us dressed. Just being from Texas caught people’s attention and gave us an opportunity to do what we came for. Everything tended to slow us down from the fast paced environment, watching all the entertainers we could see on the side of the road or the subway. As if the subway wasn’t enough entertainment for us. We had to watch taking our time walking places a lot of time we got rude comments and pushed or shoved around in a sea of people.

Another thing I noticed was that everyone I met wasn’t from New York and everyone had a unique story. Every person I had the chance to stop and talk with I’d take advantage of the moment to see how their way of life was different than mine. I discovered from the majority of the people I talked to was not from New York, they moved there from all over the world coming from various types of cultures and backgrounds of life.

New York was a different place than I imagined and saw in movies/the internet, there are many of things I experienced and saw for myself, my trip to New York sparked an initiative to travel and experience a different way of life and share a piece of my beliefs and the culture I grew up in. I learned there are different customs and cultures outside of my small town and that people are not always as courteous and friendly in a bigger city. This trip has urged me to want to live in a bigger city in the future to explore all the different cultures and step out of my comfort zone with my faith.