Solo travel wasn’t something I ever thought I would do, especially as a high schooler who could hardly leave the house for a period of time because of panic attacks. Anxiety plagued me on and off from a young age but was at its worst in ninth grade. It started to loosen its hold on me as years went by, but the thought of doing certain things still worried me.
During my junior year of high school, I was still suffering from anxiety, but I wanted to look ahead at the future. Would I find myself in the midst of panic attacks when I went off to college? What kind of career could I have like this? I knew what I was interested in, but that was about it.
Then a brochure arrived in the mail. It was for a student conference in Washington DC. I talked about it with my parents and without giving myself time to back out, we put down a deposit and booked a plane ticket.
So with bags packed, I arrived at Dulles, searching for a program leader in a red polo. My biggest worry of the day was that I wouldn’t be able to find him or her and I’d have to find my own way to the university that would be my home for the week.
It seems naïve to say, especially as it was only a few years out from a major terrorist attack on the same city, but my worries seemed major. But thankfully I did find her and hopped on a bus with a dozen other fresh-faced young adults en route to the pre-college experience. Much like the Sorting Hat, we were placed in groups, assigned roommates and given our schedules.
Throughout the week, much of it was like college life, including classes, lectures, dining halls, hallway bathrooms, and nightly social events. You could even get college credit. We did team building activities like a ropes course. We had a dinner where we learned about the massive gaps in global income, as some of us ate only rice while others had a full meal.
We had the chance to meet with our congressional representatives. We toured the Smithsonian museums, the monuments at night, the Holocaust Museum, and even took a day trip to Baltimore. We got behind the scenes experiences at the World Bank and the Embassy of Switzerland. It was also here, on the library computers, that we learned of the bus and Tube bombings in London.
I’m not sure what drew me to the program. They had programs in business, arts, leadership, and science at universities all over the country and even a few abroad. If I had known then what I would end up doing, I probably would have picked something else, but I’m grateful that I went with international diplomacy.
Because while I didn’t end up becoming a diplomat, as I planned at 18, it prepared me for the life I have now, one where I immerse myself in other cultures. That week also prepared me for college and for life, forcing me to learn to make friends with people. I learned the ins and outs of a college campus. I learned how to travel alone.
I made friends I still talk with to this day, over ten years later. What we had in common back then was our interest in politics and music, but I couldn’t have guessed what we would have in common today. My friend Tamar and I were penpals after our summer in DC but then switched to Facebook.
We still catch up when she’s in Atlanta or I’m in Washington and we’re both writers now. Jessica was another friend I bonded with over music and after a stint living in Atlanta, we still bond over Harry Potter, good food, and Portuguese wine. Samantha is a loyal travel blog reader. Amanda is an avid traveler while still holding down a full-time job.
The program gave me what I never knew I would need, a set of friends all over the country that I can pick back up with whenever we see each other. It gave me the confidence to move to a new city, Charleston, that would end up changing my life even more. I ended up becoming a political science major with a concentration on international relations based mostly on this program. And I’m forever grateful for the experience.
Good post.