I woke up from a long nap of about nine hours to the obnoxious sounds of a small infant crying and other various people talking loudly throughout the plane. I looked to my left out the clear window and instead of seeing the new york and everything familiar or bright blue ocean topped with a calm pale sky, I saw a new and refreshing landscape lined with earthy tones like green and brown. The land below was new but recognizable at the same time, it was like a more beautiful version of the home I had known my whole life. The main difference being the amount of fields and true wilderness there was. When I looked at the farmlands it reminded me of the quilts my mother customs designs for a living. The squares of tan fields and green patches of grass being the handmade blocks and then the houses and animals as pieces of applica scattered across the top. It gave me comfort amongst all the new surroundings I was trying to take in. My stomach flipped in circles and butterflies flew around inside me as we got closer and closer to the ground. I looked over to my mother with a look of both excitement and pure fear. She smiled at me and held my hand as we made the descent into the foreign country. “It’s alright, change is good,” she whispered in my ear.  Little did I know, that statement would be one of the most important things said to me throughout the three weeks I was there. It would be the one thing that I would learn that would help me open up as a person. By going to Europe and experiencing so many new and crazy things I was able to realize that after many years of being afraid of change, it can in fact be a very good thing. Letting change happen and allowing myself to be part of it in a positive way helped me to realize how crucial it is and how much I actually love it.

Over the seventeen years that I have been alive, I have moved about seventeen times and changed schools about six times within those seventeen years. To me, change has brought nothing but terrible results. I have been bullied and harrassed numerous times for being the new kid at school, it got so bad that I would stay home and pretend to be sick almost everyday. It didn’t help that due to the fact that I used to be very timid, I didn’t make very many friends either. I got lonely and depressed, I felt like everything was crashing down on me. It got much better when I settled down in 9th grade after being in auburn for a year, but the horrible nightmares that kept me awake at night still prevented me from accepting change in its superior form. Going to Europe was no exception, it was a new place with new people I had only met once. I had to have the experience head on without any real guidance. When I arrived there as I got off the plane there weren't very many differences. It looked the same and felt the same as New York City. There were cars honking and people walking about. I could hear police sirens in the distance and see birds flying about the tall skyscrapers that made me feel like a tiny ant moving about the ground. There were people of all different cultures and backgrounds everywhere I looked. At first, it didn’t seem so bad, I was calm and peaceful without a care in the world. Suddenly everything changed, I realized that I couldn’t read the signs or understand what people were saying. I knew some French but this country had people speaking German and Austrian. These  were languages that I had never been exposed to. People were staring at me and whispering, even if I could hear them I wouldn’t be able to know what they were saying. The fragrances in the air began to feel new and unrecognizable, they were amazing but different and that's what made them the most frightening. I started to panic and the homesick feeling rushed through my veins like rapids through a river. As soon as we got to our first hotel, all I wanted to do was hide under all the blankets in my bed and become invisible from the world. My parents came into the hotel room and told me that it was time to go to our first destination; Vienna, Austria. Yes, I was scared out of my mind and yes, everything was changing around me. But as soon as I saw how beautiful it was and realized that I, Vienna was named after such an amazing place. For once, things didn’t seem so terrible. From the glorious chapels the reached beyond the sky to the cute little cafes where composers I idolized since birth had once roamed, I fell in love it all. That was only the beginning, we hopped from Austria to France, then to Germany and finally Sweden. With each new place I became more and more used to the feeling of change. I don’t know what it was about it, but it made me open up, it made me feel like I could go anywhere and do anything without anyone or any feelings stopping me. I could have never left. By the time the trip had come to an end I just wanted to travel the world and experience more and more changes in my life. Like my mother had said, change really is a good thing.

In the beginning I thought that change could only bring out unhappy feelings because of what had happened in my past. After traveling to different places outside of the country I realized that I love exploring new places, seeing wondrous sights, and awakening to a new view outside my bedroom window each day. It was the change that made the trip as fun as it was. Since then I have become a better version of myself; more accepting and able to take on whatever comes my way. No matter how different it is from the safety of home.