When travelers go on trips around to other states or to other countries, most of the time the night before leaving for a big trip people worry. I’ve been visiting other states and countries ever since I was little, but this particular trip I took in eighth grade to Jamaica gave me anxiety. As fun and exciting this trip sounds, I was very nervous. My cousins were closer to my sister’s age and my mother and aunt would spend most of their time together. But I was just putting my worries behind me and just looking forward to spending a week in Jamaica on a tropical beach.
The moment we arrived at Jamaica we were immediately escorted to our rooms. Once we were all settled down in our hotel rooms, we were on our way to explore the resort. Our first night out, we went to a ginormous buffet where practically everyone at the resort gathered under a huge canopy in the middle of the beach piling food on their plates. After my family and I ate all we could, we began to walk around the resort, viewing what Jamaica had to offer us. It was getting late so we all returned to our hotel rooms for a good night sleep so we could get up at a reasonable time in the morning to sit and relax at the beach all day. Once everyone was awake the next day, we went to a different buffet for breakfast and shortly after we finished, we all raced to the beach. While the rest of my family already had a bronze tan, I was getting burnt, so I went into the water to cool off. The water was crystal clear. I could see all the little fish swarming around my feet every step I took. Shortly after, a man at the resort approached me. He welcomed me with a grim handshake and said, “Princess! How would you like to go jet skiing today?” I quickly ran over to my mom telling her what the man had to offer us. My entire family thought it was a great idea. After we agreed to the offer, about four men on large shiny blue jet skis approached us at the shore of the water. My cousin Taylor and I hopped on the same jet ski which started off absolutely terrifying at the speed while she was driving the Jet Ski. The Jet Ski ride came off as scary, over all it was amazingly fun. The rest of the vacation included going to the beach every day and getting involved in fun activities. Later in the week another man approached us once again. This man asked us if we wanted to die a horse along the water. Of course we didn’t turn down the offer. The large tall horse galloped over to me and because of my height, it was a struggle to get on. The horse began to prance around in the water and soon my experience riding the horse came to an end. Although I was close to backing out and not getting on top of the horse, knowing I conquered my fear of riding horses is a memory I will carry with me forever. Later on that night karaoke was playing in one of the rooms at the hotel. I was way too shy to sing in front of people, which I regret not taking apart of the activity, so I just sat and watched others sing extremely well or extremely terrible. As short as our vacation seemed, overtime Jamaica was over.
Over all, what I’ve learned from this vacation is that if any traveler is nervous or has any doubts about their trip, don’t waste your time stressing about it. Trying something new is always a good thing to get in the habit of and travelers should take risks or chances because they may never get the opportunity like that again.