Even though college students all have different dreams and goals, one that most share is going abroad. Nothing sounds more exciting than spending a few months walking around places you’ve only dreamt about. I’m no different. I’m looking into just about every abroad program I can, and I can’t wait to get back to Europe. Yet, while everyone thinks the only exotic trips are abroad, no one thinks about what’s in our own country.
This summer, I took a cross-country road trip with my mom, my stepdad, my stepsister, and her husband. We left from our small town outside of Pittsburgh and went on a ten-day adventure that ended in Las Vegas. After this whole expedition, my family and I learned a lot of stuff about our country and traveling together. But, me personally? I learned why it’s important to not only go abroad, but to explore our own country. Here’s what I learned:
1. Our country is breathtaking. You can see a million pictures of different scenes across the country, but until you see it in person, you never fully realize how unbelievable it really is. After hiking through the Virgin River in Zion National Park with canyons towering above me, climbing over the natural arches in Arches National Park in Utah, and staying in the highest elevated town in America in Leadville, Colorado, I realized that exotic scenes don’t just exist across the ocean.
2. It’s also big. Read all the stats you want, but it’s not until you drive for two days straight to reach Colorado (or something similar) that you realize just how big our country is. 2,800 miles isn’t fathomable until you spend an entire day driving across Kansas and watching how flat it is.
3. You can get culture shock in your own country. I consider myself to be pretty well traveled, but there were still some things that surprised me everywhere I went. For example, people in the Midwest are willing to help you with anything and everything (including hooking up a giant RV in the RV park) and the people in Colorado were some of the most relaxed I’ve ever seen. And the air was always a little bit cleaner, the sun a little bit brighter, and the food tasted a little bit better.
4. It’s nice to go on an adventure and never worry about a language barrier. Trust me, you won’t find a bigger advocate of learning a second language than me (being a French major and all). I think it’s one of the most important things a person can do. But, I also understand the fear of traveling to another country and not being fluent in their language. Traveling in your own country means you won’t miss out on any part of the experience, or at least not because you don’t know the language.
5. You could spend a month in our country and still not see it all. I really only got to explore two states, and knowing that makes me want to go out and travel more. Just thinking about what I could see if I went to New England, or explored Oregon and Washington, or even Arizona and Mexico makes me want to call my parents right now to try to convince them to plan another trip next year. There are so many amazing things in all the states that you could plan a trip to just one state for 10 days and still not see everything.
That being said, I encourage everyone to go explore our country whenever you have the chance. Even if that means jumping in your car and driving a couple hours outside of where you live. I’m sure you can find something incredible! So while I’m still excited to study abroad and to take as many trips as I can to other countries, I’ll still always consider the U.S. first, when I have the opportunity to take a trip.
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