Lemons into Amazing Lemonade

Before I came on this trip, I had no interest in gap years or semesters or any of that. I just thought they were a waste of time and that I'm missing out on being in college. Yet as fate would have had it, I was accepted as a spring admit and would not be starting school until the spring. My mother found the organization and at first I really only had any interest in visiting Australia. Somehow they managed to convince my stubborn self to apply. When I was told I was accepted, it was more or less set in stone. This trip soon became the trip of a lifetime. I absolutely loved everyone in my group, my leaders were amazing, helpful and hilarious. We did activities that I would have never done back home such as mountaineering, or walking through a swamp (yet I lost a game to do the latter ;) It was a three month dry program to New Zealand, Fiji, and Australia. We weren't allowed Wi-Fi compatible devices and drinking would have gotten us sent home. Yet those kind of rules just made the trip so much more fun. Without the alcohol, we were all safer and actually happier and the no devices made us interact with each other. I had an unbelievably amazing time on this trip, and I had to come home and tell my mother that she was right at the end of it all. If you are even remotely interested in doing a gap year or gap semester I couldn't recommend Carpe Diem more to you. It was without a doubt the trip of a lifetime, and some amazing lemonade born from some pretty sour lemons.