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Catching a Moment - Experiencing Europe

IRELAND | Thursday, 18 April 2013 | Views [220] | Comments [1] | Scholarship Entry

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always yearned to travel. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in a blue collar, average income family, and it goes without saying that we really couldn’t afford elaborate vacations. Often my summers were spent visiting my aunt in North Carolina, which while relaxing and fun, it wasn’t exactly the trip I had hoped for.
My first true opportunity to travel came when I graduated high school. My aunt had been promising me a trip to Europe as my graduation present since I was in the sixth grade, but I refused to get my hopes up. Plus, her income wasn’t much better than my parent’s. Before I knew it, I graduated from Burgettstown High School with the intentions of pursuing a career as a print journalist. Around the same time my aunt had come into money from the whole fracking ordeal going on in the States. She booked our vacation to Europe that summer, a ten-day tour of the British Isles.
Europe was everything that I had imagined it to be and more. The bustling streets of London mesmerized me much like the time I had visited New York City, though the people in London seemed much more outgoing. I made friends with locals, marveled at architecture, ate fish and chips, drank in fifteenth century pubs, and collected stories to share with my friends and family back home. I needed a way to capture this moment because I knew it was something worth sharing. I kept a leatherback journal with me the entire trip, logging my experiences every night before I went to bed. Photographs just didn’t seem to do the trick; I felt that I needed to log my experiences and emotions as they happened so that I would never forget. In the short span of ten days I was able to see and experience so many things: Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the Book of Kells, Edinburgh Castle, outdoor markets in Wales, visit the Roman Baths, and marvel at the sheer adrenaline rush of the crowd at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. However, my thirst for travel wasn’t sated by that trip. It is one that I will undoubtedly never forget, but it was so much more than just a ‘vacation’ to me. It opened up my eyes to the true wonders of traveling. While I’m far from rich or well off financially, I’ve been saving my money to hopefully study abroad in college. The idea of actually living in another country is something that fuels me to work so hard every day; it is the reason I know I will flourish as a freelance travel writer or a foreign correspondent. Travel is simply my passion.

Tags: Travel Writing Scholarship 2013

Comments

1

At the start of the last two years I spent three or four months in England -- mostly in London, where accommodation was expensive. Maybe I should have spent less time and toured the UK more intensively!

  Nigel from New Zealand Apr 18, 2013 7:19 AM

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