A
Successful, Meaningful Experience
Success is the achievement of something desired or
attempted. A successful travel experience doesn’t mean arriving at the
destination and doing what was planned but rather enjoying the time spent in a
foreign land and being able to learn and connect with the culture there. Whether
it is small or grand; every experience is meaningful. Being able to travel is a
wonderful privilege and the amount of knowledge an individual is able to take
from the trip is far greater than the amount one could obtain from within a
classroom setting. Traveling to a foreign land should allow the visitor to be aware
of the cultural differences and integrate themselves into the culture by trying
to adapt, learn the manners, and understand how matters are viewed by the host
country.
Traveling allow connections to be created and foreign
relations to develop. My family loves to travel and the love for traveling has
been kindled by them. I love to travel because of the experiences I encounter
and the knowledge I obtain from different cultures and experiences because each
one enriches my life even more. Not only does it give me another sense of the
atmosphere but when I take in the surrounding sounds, smells, and sights of the
area it creates a sense of familiarity that I can relate back to in the future.
As an individual I am responsible but also a social butterfly and am able to relate
matters easily and efficiently. Since I am able to pick up on things fairly
quickly I will be able to associate the things I would have learned from the
tour and share it with others in the US. The stereotypes of another nation would
gradually decrease as more information about it is spread to others. The
appreciation for other nations and their information of culture would be known
more by others. I would break the ice easily because I’m a bubbly, outgoing
person but at the same time I’m cautious of rules and regulations. My presence
will make the already pleasurable time humorous and less dull on the way to the
destination with my silliness. I know my limits and will back off when others
have had enough and are worn out because everybody needs their rest and at
times formal etiquette is required.
Traveling is helpful in learning because it is a “hands
on” experience which enables students to retain lessons longer and better. They
refer back to the memories and the information they experienced stick to them
long because they lived through it. If I
am chosen as one of the twenty three students able to be part of the Kizuna
project, I will be grateful for the chance to not disappoint the people who
sponsored this trip but also to the teachers. All traveling experiences are
meaningful and impact individuals because it becomes a part of who they are and
what they could become.
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Traveling Experience
I traveled domestically to Texas, Nebraska, Illinois, Arkansas,
and California. Texas was a road trip with my family to visit friends and
relatives down south. Nebraska was to go sight - seeing and visit the Omaha
Zoo. Illinois, Arkansas, and California were lay overs which allowed me to go
out to the city for a while and explore. I have traveled to Singapore, Japan, Russia,
Canada, South Korea, China, and Vietnam. Japan was one of the stops my family
made before we arrived in the US to start a new life so I don’t remember much.
During the trips to Vietnam to visit relatives our flights had lay overs of
four hours to twelve hours so we would often get restless and go out to
sight-see and experience the cultural differences and the difficult language
barriers. The long hours gave me the
ability to have patience, be aware of my surrounds to not lose items or get
lost, and gave me in sight of other nations’ cultures and values and how they
interacted. I had a wonderful time traveling and each time I travel it deepens
my passion for exploring the world and finding out more about others who live
underneath the same sky as me.
