I spent the last five days of my very precious summer traveling around Nevada and Northern California. Throughout those days I started to notice people on a different level. I wondered, almost too hard, about their personal lives and where they came from. People in the West are different than the Midwest and I stuck out like a sore thumb with my smiling face and talkative personality. The point of this piece is not to give you a boring summary of a trip with my (super fun) grandparents, but to give you a little insight about why I think traveling as a teenager is one of the most important ways to grow up. The best way to explain this is to tell you about the interesting people I met en route from St. Louis, to Las Vegas, to Reno, and eventually to Lake Tahoe.

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My encounters were pretty standard in St. Louis and even on the flight to Las Vegas. I smiled, said hello, and continued reading my book until the flight landed. It wasn't until the flight from Vegas to Reno that I met my first Example. There I sat, in the middle of a row on the wing when a large African American man quietly asked, "Is that seat taken?" He was kind and soft for standing at about six-foot-five and I couldn't help but notice that his hat read "PACK" on the front. After pleasantries, I dozed off to sleep. When I woke up, he was scrolling through his Instagram feed. Being as nosy as I am, I glanced down to see a photo of University of Nevada-Reno's late defensive end, Marc Ma, who died in Lake Tahoe just two days prior. My heart ached for Marc's family because he was so young, but I silently looked up towards the front of the plane. Out of nowhere I blurted, "What does your hat mean?" He told me he was a student at UNR and was flying back to school for the summer. We chatted about Division 1 offers and college sports and then all of a sudden it clicked. Korey Rush, fellow defensive end of Marc's, had just lost a teammate two days before summer workouts. The plane landed almost too soon for our conversation. He wished me luck in my upcoming season and I returned a similar comment. I walked into Reno sad and shaken, contemplating how horrible it would be to lose a teammate.

The city of Reno, is one of the weirdest, most uncomfortable cities I've ever been in. Homeless people rode the streets with drunks and drug dealers, hitting on fellow female travelers. I decided to get a massage about 10 miles away from my hotel where I met Example number Two. He was my massage therapist. His name was Jason. I felt normal enough with him, trying to focus on my breathing as he rubbed out years of calf and quad injuries. That's when my mouth decided to randomly start blurting again. I asked him about his job, what his life was like, and if his arms ever got tired. After all, we were in the most intimate situation possible. Jason was a little over 30 and started becoming a masseuse after high school. I remember making a comment about how he's had plenty of years of experience and he purposefully hit a pressure point. The thing that struck me about Jason, other than our witty banter, was the fact that he said, "After a while, every body loses all physicality and just becomes flesh." That comment silenced me for a bit and I wondered how a profession so intimate can desensitize you so much. He was simple and natural minded and ended our session with a hug that I realized he barely even felt the warmth of.

Throughout my week in Lake Tahoe, I met generous, thoughtful doormen that took good care of me at the hotel. I dug for another example while in the mountains, but it wasn't until my flight from Las Vegas to Des Moines that I found Examples Three and Four. A small eight-year-old and her grandma plopped down next to me. The girl, Gabi, had earplugs in with knock-off Beats over them. During takeoff, she felt sick and reached for the Barf Bag, embarrassed once again. After she was feeling better, we talked about everything from Donald Trump to chocolate chip muffins.

During our conversations I noticed Example Four, an Asian man in his thirties looking back at us every once in a while. For now, though, Gabi had zero filter, babbling about her life with her mom and two half siblings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They lived in a small apartment complex cluttered with drug dealers and woman beaters. Our three-hour talk skated around different topics but I was struck when she mentioned a time that the man upstairs had a gun to his girlfriend's head, shouting and threatening her, and eventually screaming in Gabi's direction to "watch out." In a timely manner, Gabi popped a small pill into her mouth that she called her "worry pill." It was at that moment that I realized that this innocent little eight year old had more worries and had been in more dangerous situations than I could ever imagine. Her dark brown eyes had seen more trouble than half of the Midwest. The stories didn't seem to phase her and she gently moved to the topic of my love life. Example Four, Alex Huang's ears perked up when I mentioned that I did not have a boyfriend or anything close to that. When the flight landed, Alex slipped me his business card, mentioning something about how if I was ever in L.A. I should come see his magic show. I smiled and said thank you politely. But, after a little research, I found that he is indeed a magician with high reviews, often performing at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. He dabbled in law and hospitality in college, but nothing excited him quite like the art of magic. He shyly told me that "magic is amazing because it brings people together."

While my encounters with these people were small in relation to relationships that we, as humans, build every day, I felt a connection to each of them. Their stories struck something in me. An emotion, maybe. I came home needing to write about my travels because my head was filled with all of these interactions.

I had come to the conclusion that traveling while you're young is the best way to learn who you are. I've learned that I'm an excessive talker and if I don't slow down, I'll miss all of these tiny blessings that teach me a lesson. By traveling, I have expanded my horizons of foods, activities, and people skills. Not to mention, I've been exceptionally humbled by each of their stories. Look out for small stories in your everyday life. You will be amazed how another person can widely affect the way you view your own life. Take time to travel. Take time to listen. You won't regret it.