Alnwick Experience

I absolutely fell in love with England and the freedom of traveling on this trip! We were given the opportunity to go on a field trip every Friday, where natives of the area helped us explore all of the beauty the United Kingdom has to offer. But what really stands out to me about this experience was how studying abroad changed me personally; I never before had realized how much was truly out there. I grew up in a very secluded, rural Mid-Western community, that handed me all of the comforts small town USA has to offer. I was always rather content with my safe, little town, hidden in a corner away from the rest of the world. I spent every night at the hometown football game, rooting on our boys and every Sunday at church with all of my next door neighbors. I was both blessed and cursed with the love and close-mindedness of a small town. But after I decided to study abroad on a whim, I discovered how much of the world I was really missing, and how different people from different cultures really make this world quite lovely. I suppose traveling and leaving my comfort zone in hopes of finding something a little more set a fire off inside of me; I am no longer content to sit back and watch the world pass before me: I want to be part of that world. I want to continue to discover, create, imagine, dream, and fall in love with the new places I go and the unique people I'll meet. If I attempted summarize my experience briefly I would say this: I finally learned how it feels to go with the wind, to disregard any previous inhibitions and just free fall, and I fell in love with England. If that in't the world's purest beauty, what is?