As the days get closer for our trip to El Salvador, my mind is just exploding with thoughts, nerves, and excitement. I am really excited to go on this trip for many of reasons—one is that I have never left the country and I am excited to see how other people have to live their lives in a different country. I am also excited to see all the students and families that we are going to hang out with and see what they like to do for fun or in their free time. I also can’t wait to try out the food. I hear it is pretty delicious.

The one thing I am nervous about is that I don’t know how to speak Spanish very well. I can understand but can’t speak it. So from being down there I hope that my Spanish will improve so that I can at least have a conversation with someone. My mom speaks Spanish but she never taught me while I was growing up and I really wish she had. Speaking a second language could take you pretty far in life, so I better get to learning!

I found out about this trip over the dinner table. We were talking about how fun it would be to leave the States and out of nowhere Kelsi said that she was going to El Salvador over Spring Break and that there was one spot open. So I jumped right on it, got a hold of Hunter and started fundraising right away. It was almost like a blind date; I had no clue what we were going to do, I really just wanted to leave the country and see what the world has to offer us.

In conclusion, this entire trip is going to be a life-changing experience for me, I hope. The reason why I say this is that I believe we all take stuff for granted and when I go down there I know they’re not going to have half the stuff we have here in the States. So it’s going to teach me that I don’t need everything in life, just my family and the little things. I hope this trip changes me as a person a tiny bit on how I see life.