I am in love with traveling. It just does something to my soul that I can't really put into words. It is a beautiful experience as a whole. I have been blessed with parents who also love traveling, which is probably where I inherited it from. We have gone on many trips over the years as a family; my dad and I have gone on even more trips which have been incredible. There is more to traveling than just going to a beautiful new place. There is so much that we can learn from these places. These experiences truly awaken our souls.

One of my favorite places I have been is Europe. Yes, that is a very big place with a number of countries within it, but the continent as a whole I think offers so much. Yes, each country is different in a number of ways that make it unique, and I have not been to all of them yet. Just seeing the ocean from the other side of the world is an amazing thing to me. I have seen the ocean many times, but the first time you see it all the way across the globe makes it quite a magical experience through my eyes. Something within my soul just feels content when looking across those ocean waves. I am a sucker for the beach anyway. It can also be a humbling experience.

I traveled to Normandy, France one summer and we went to Omaha Beach, the place where thousands of men died on D-Day in World War II. My dad and I walked through the hillside that overlooks the beach where the German soldiers waited in bunkers. While we were walking I noticed this odd kind of hole in the brush to my right, so I went over and tried to see what it was. It ended up being an underground bunker that the German soldiers built. I was a little scared at first, not really knowing what I was about to enter or what kinds of animals may be living down there, but I pulled up my big girl pants and slid down the hole and landed in the coolest underground place. I found that it had another exit as well that my dad could use to come down and see it.

While standing down there, I imagined what it must have been like years ago when the men were down there, since a war was going one and they feared for their lives. Or when we walked along Omaha Beach, the beach where tons of young American men didn't even have a chance. Some of them had just turned eighteen. When I looked down at my feet and thought about the amount of blood that was shed where I am standing, it was extremely humbling. When you look down the beach and see people's fathers, brothers, and sons that risked their lives and didn't make it, it humbles the soul in ways that are truly indescribable. Now anytime I watch Saving Private Ryan it becomes increasingly harder knowing that I stood on that very beach where good men lost their lives.

That is something I never would have felt had I not traveled to Normandy. I believe it is very good for your soul to experience things similar to my experience, because within our everyday lives we get wrapped up in the petty things in life. We would not have these petty things to get wrapped up in if not for the men and women that risked their lives for us. It forces us to take a step back and remember why we get to do the things we do. I hadn't realized how much I took for granted until I was standing on that beach, and then in the American Cemetery where the men that died on that beach on D-Day are buried. It was an overwhelming feeling standing among those gravestones. It was even worse when it was a gravestone for an unknown solider and says, "Here Rests in Honored Glory A Comrade In Arms, Known But to God." It makes you feel emotions you never knew you could feel. And as a result, I believe I have become a better person.

Traveling is an amazing experience. It's something I am extremely grateful I get to do, because the experiences that we have change us. They teach us about life in a quite simple way. It brings peace to our lives. For that, I am forever grateful for traveling.