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It all began during my first semester at my local community college. I had taken a few years after high school to do some soul searching and went back into the academic realm to continue my pursuit of learning. It was in my freshman orientation class that my teacher, and later academic advisor, told me about an opportunity to study Spanish abroad. Immediately I knew I must go on this trip, despite knowing that financially it was not exactly possible for a broke college student making low wages as an accounting assistant and bartending for random events on the side. Nevertheless I applied for the program and soon learned of a scholarship that could make this new dream a reality. Quickly, I began the application process; I wrote two essays explaining how the program would affect my future career goals and what I would take from it. The decision process and general timeline for this trip was not exactly in my favor. I had yet to hear if I got the scholarship, when I was accepted into the program and decided to just make it a reality. I made $25 payments each week for the four months leading up to the trip and two days prior I learned that I received the scholarship. I was actually going to leave the country for the first time, by myself, and I had made this happen. This all happened last year, and I went to Antigua, Guatemala for two weeks! It was more eye-opening than I could have ever imagined. The people, the culture, the nature - the whole of the country was breathtakingly beautiful. More so than I could have fathomed, mainly due to the negative comments people I knew would make in regards to the trip. In general, folks had a poorly predisposed idea of this third world country. And blindly, I believed some of what I was told - that is, until I saw it with my own eyes. My heart was captured in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Antigua, Guatemala. My soul sang in the hills of the volcano-surrounded Lake Atitlán. The flowers, the fresh air, the view points were more beautiful than the land I’ve called home for my whole 24 years of existence thus far. And to think I may have never seen it! I couldn’t imagine a life where I didn’t go and grow in a new place. And I certainly can’t wait to go again! I am going back to study in Antigua again this May for two weeks, then I will being continuing my travels to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for the remainder of the month. I will be coming home a day before my 25th birthday and this month long journey will be a celebratory exploration in regards to my life thus far. And I already know this next trip will fill my heart and soul even more so than the last.