How tempting does it sound to get away from everything? Work, chores, clubs, sports, drama, responsibility upon responsibility, stressor upon stressor, the list goes on.
Summer vacations are often the highlight of the year. Whether it is France, Mexico, the British Isles, Puerto Rico, Japan or anywhere else in the world, the sights and sounds of somewhere new rarely fail to stun foreigners.
“One of my favorite things is going to a different place–like last year I went to New York–and just seeing all these people with all these different backgrounds and speaking different languages, and all this kind of stuff that you don’t really see in Papillion is really cool,” senior Elaina Delwiche said.
The unknown and the not yet experienced continue to be so insurmountably interesting. Learning about different countries and environments becomes worth the effort time and time again.
“Make sure to immerse yourself in the culture,” junior Noah Finn said. “That’s really important wherever you go.”
As well as involving oneself in the ways people live and create, making sure to appreciate the architecture – what is the product of hours upon hours of hard work and sweat – proves to be largely paramount.
“I enjoyed seeing all the landmarks that I had learned about,” Delwiche said. “We went to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre and all this stuff that I had learned about in [French] class, and seeing it in real life was really cool”
Days always seem to speed up when times feel good and life doesn’t quite feel real. On a trip in a vastly different time zone, the hours stretch.
“My least favorite part about that trip was how jetlagged and tired I was, and how much walking we did every single day because I was so tired,” Delwiche said.
On the flip side, a good rush of adrenaline can frame just about any life experience. The surge of blood and the nerves can really be exciting on occasion.
“I went parasailing [in Cancun]. It was really fun, just a little nerve-wracking,” Finn said. “It was my first time ever doing that and being above the ocean so high, but it was a really cool experience and I would definitely recommend it.”
Even through fun times and exciting experiences, commonly things that get left behind.
“There was some Mayan ruins that I really wanted to go to, but we just couldn’t make the time for it,” Finn said.
There will always be more waiting in the places that were left, always things that have not been witnessed or experienced.
“I think that there were a lot of things that I would want to see again, or things that I would want to do tours of,” Delwiche said. “We did a bunch of tours of stuff but for some of the things we just kind of saw them from afar.”
No matter the things done or the destination traveled to, the importance of a break from the norm, the excitement of a new environment, the escape from home for a while will always end up beneficial; whether that’s for the mind or the soul.
