My parents are wonderful people with lots of life
experiences, but neither of them has been outside North America. All of my
friends spend their days working their butts off in their last moments in High
School or the first moments of college. My best friend at home works two almost
full time jobs. I can’t help but remember that things like this don’t happen to
normal people like me. So while I drove through the countryside of Andorra,
stood by the Harbor in Monte Carlo, and spent my day shopping through the
famous Gallerie Lafayette in Paris my camera shutter snapped by the reality of
what was happening never really clicked.
I was going to write some obnoxious post detailing my tour
and everything we did, but the recount of events and meals will never be able
to describe how surreal this whole experience was and how blessed I feel to have
had the opportunity to travel around Europe with 90 of my friends, family members. Instead of
some cheesy vacation breakdown I will say this; We laughed. We cried. We didn’t
sleep very much (some days 5:30 or 6:00 was time to LOAD THE BUS). We ate some
incredible food. We ate some pretty bad food. We saw some of the most
incredible and recognizable sights in Europe. We visited some countries that I
barely knew existed. WE LIVED!
Words can hardly begin to describe the way I feel sitting in
my room after this world wind trip, but I do know that as I exited out bus for
the last time at the very familiar Linz Banhof it did not feel like another
stop on the tour, or a different vacation; but instead I felt relieved. I was
home, and now the thought of coming back to Michigan is almost as daunting as the
thought of getting on a plane to Austria ever was.
