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Traveling is and has always been a very special part of a part of my life. I grew up a military child (brat) traveling with my family because my father was in the Army. I was born in Tacoma Washington, went to elementary school in New Port News Virginia, played in the snow in Watertown New York, spent time with family in Davenport Iowa and when I was 11, I took my first flight out the country heading to Wi Jong Bu Korea to visit my dad. I went there for two weeks in the summer between the summer of my 6th and 7th-grade year. Now that I am 24 years old and knowing what I know now from meeting people and learning new languages I am grateful I was able to learn about travel and still travel to this day. From studying abroad to learning about different cultures this has helped me reflect on my travel journey. As I look back on my adventures, they were a leap into the unknown that through traveling became known. Traveling around the United States and then going outside of the country to another continent where they spoke a different language, ate different foods and did different things were experiences that stretched and expanded my mind greatly. I’d never been on the plane so long and I didn’t know a flight that long went over the water and ended up on another continent so quickly. When I got off the plane and actually landed in Korea I was at first taken back because I didn’t know what to expect. I was excited to see my dad but my expectations were blown away as I got to dive into the people, the culture and the whole atmosphere. Wondering around in the city as a young girl, I learned to communicate with people that spoke a different language, as I embraced their culture and cuisine. Everything was eye-opening to me from how they lived to how they provided for their family. I experienced eating in their restaurant by sitting in their culture it is a tradition. I walked down the streets and saw dead animals hanging up in the markets. “Wow,” I thought and later wrote it all down in my journal. The hospitality to the cars driving on the opposite side of the road. There were American food chains but they weren’t the same. Although I never felt like an outsider I loved the way Koreans embraced us as well as I embraced them. I definitely loved my experience from observing the collectivistic culture to trying the food and being able to experience something new. When it comes to traveling, I believe every place you go to is unknown and from that experience, I learned to always keep an open mind when I travel because you never know who you may meet, what you might see or where you will end up, but it will be interesting, exciting, educational and enjoyable!