Unexpected, Life-changing, and World-class!

Up with People is a program that is perfect for a gap year (or a gap six months), whether it is a gap between high school and college, college and the real world, or a break from the real world. I traveled with UWP after college--thanks to the encouragement from my mother who traveled with UWP in the 70s--with people from 20+ countries to over 10 countries in 2014. I learned more about myself in that time than I did in all of college, including how to LOVE giving and receiving feedback, how to speak simple phrases in a handful of languages, how to live outside my comfort zone for weeks at a times (try going to Cuba and living in housing the government chose for you to use with food the government provided--definitely eye-opening!), and how to make friends with strangers with just a hug and a few words in their language.

I saw friends who said "I can't sing" get in front of hundreds of people and smile from ear-to-ear as they found their voice. I saw friends who said "I can't dance" bring an audience to their feet after dancing their way across the stage. I saw friends who weren't sure they were capable of performing find a home backstage, as staff support, and more. There was a place for everyone, of every kind of humor, of every level of introvert/extrovert, and more--the cast was a 'family' for an entire six months, and even now that we are scattered back to our homes across the globe, I still keep in touch with them and look forward to reunions in the future.

I did not have a single bad experience in UWP. I had some hard learning experiences, and I had some situations that could have been handled better--by myself and others--but that is the nature of spending 6 months with people; there is bound to be a little tension at times. I spent a year trying new food, learning new things, meeting new people, doing community service that TRULY was making a difference in places we were living (not just visiting, because we lived with local families for the week), and performing a show that spreads a message of hope to THOUSANDS across the world in multiple languages. It was transformative, and the person I transformed into was more ready to return to the 'adult world', ready to make a difference in my community and ready to continue to search for that hope I felt while traveling the world with a cast of my closest friends for six months.