It’s coming up to that time of year when I start to miss my travels abroad to Europe. It has been almost 5 years since I spent a month of my life in Germany as a high school student. It was this month-long exchange trip that opened my eyes to the life of travel. And I blame this trip for my never-ending itch to jump in the car and explore the world God created.

I will start from the beginning, and how I even ended up on this trip, because it was not originally part of my plan. When I was a freshman in high school I knew I wanted to take some language classes for college. My high school was small so we had two options to choose from. German and Spanish. I knew Spanish would be more useful in the world, however, at the time I found the Spanish teacher very intimating and did not want to take her classes. (Ironically I ended up joining the yearbook and she was the advisor and was not as scary as I originally thought). So that left me with German, which I thought could be cool, my family is German so I figured it would be cool to learn a little bit about where my family came from as well. My first year of German was not my best, to say the least, and I did not know if I would return for the second. It was at the end of my first year that we got to start thinking about going on the German trip which would be after my third year. Because I was not sure if I would return to German class I decided not to sign up. However I had a change of heart and during my second year of German, something started to click and the language started to make more sense. I started to really love taking German and it was one of my favorite classes, except now, I had an issue, all of the exchange spots on the German trip were filled and unless a new German student signed up, there would be no space for me to participate. So as the semester came to an end I still wasn’t going on the trip. But then, something changed during my third year. I found myself with the opportunity to go on the trip. This change was super exciting, and a little scary. I now only had about 7 months to save enough money to go on this trip of a lifetime. With the support of my teacher and my family, I was able to go, I had to sell my car to do it, but in the end, it was so worth it. This trip taught me so much about travel and myself.

This trip was a huge step for my shy self. I rarely ever had sleep over’s with friends, and I had never been on a plane before. I have also never been on a trip without my parents. But as I gave my parents hugs and went through security for the first time, I was so proud of myself for doing the scary thing (even if I was crying a little and on the verge of an anxiety attack). My time in Europe was something I will never forget.

My class started with a 24ish hour layover in Iceland. We explored the country on a guided bus tour. Seeing incredible waterfalls, the ocean, hot springs, and geysers. It was truly incredible. But nobody told us it doesn’t get dark in Iceland so I and my friends accidentally stayed up all night and realized we needed to be out of bed at 4 AM to catch our flight to Germany. And we realized this at about 2 AM.

Our exhausted 16-year-old selves did survive though and landing in Munich Germany was mind-blowing. Walking out of the airport, to the subway, and then onto the streets of Munich, I am pretty sure my eyes were wide and my mouth was hanging open. It felt like a movie, I am a bit of a history nerd so just walking on the streets and seeing all of the history and old buildings was crazy. We spend 3-4 days in Munich, exploring, learning history, and taking in everything.

While in Munich is where I also saw my first example of “van life” a dream of mine I cannot seem to shake. I literally became obsessed with the idea of living on the road and traveling where my wheels can take me from that moment. One day I still hope to get to achieve this dream in some capacity.

After our few days in Munich, we loaded back onto a bus and road-tripped down to Austria, where we spent another few days in the mountains at a youth hostel on a glacier lake. This was also the first time I had seen any mountains, and I felt very very small there. It was in Austria that I fell in love with the mountains and now I am always thinking about going back.

After our time in Austria, we went to our final destination. A small town called Lahr in the Black Forest region of Germany. It was here that we met our exchange families and spent the next 2.5 weeks being a part of their families. I learned so much being with my host family and being a part of a different worldview than what I was used to.

During this trip, I learned that I can do hard things and that dreams are achievable. It was after this trip that I learned that if you work hard, put the time in and chase your goals. You will eventually reach them. It was the summer of Junior year that I started to take senior pictures and dive into portrait photography, and start working towards my dream of becoming a full-time photographer. I learned that sometimes the scary things are worth it and that you can do hard things. I learned to live life curious, and open, and to always be willing to learn. And I learned how special it is to travel and explore the world.

I also learned…. never forget your camera at home again.