Without a doubt, my most memorable vacation of my life took place during the summer after my sophomore year of high school. I went on a trip to France that was organized through the French teachers at my high school. We had roughly 20 students going with us, including the daughter (and her best friend) of my French teacher; along with a few students from other local high schools.
I actually had written about this trip in pretty extensive detail back in September. You can check out my original post here:
this was the greatest distance that I had ever traveled from home in my life. At the time, it was also, by far, the longest time that I’ve ever been away from home. At the risk of repeating myself and my previous post about this trip, this trip was very much the flashpoint of my entire high school experience. Everything that I had been in my first two years of high school and everything that I would eventually become in my final two year of high school came to a head during this 15 day vacation.
Of all of the things that we saw, all of my experiences interacting with people and speaking French – and actually being complimented on my accent by actual French people – I think the thing that I really took with me from this trip is that the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily function the way that we perceive it to function here in the United States. Our way isn’t the only way. Furthermore, our way isn’t even necessarily the best way.
It’s quite a brain job when you are sitting in a classroom in school learning about a language or a culture or even a country and you see photos that look like they could’ve been taken a 1963. It doesn’t seem real. That seems like something abstract in the past. But then when you set foot in that country when you walk around, breathe the air speak the language and see the sites. It’s pretty surreal.
I think that it’s extremely important for people to not travel, but to travel to other countries; to experience other cultures and realize that not everyone does everything the way that you do.
For a 16-year-old kid who had just gotten his drivers license two months prior, this was a lot to process. But the entire experience changed to me. It may be a better person. As I said, in my original post, this trip to France is, to this day, one of the three greatest things I’ve ever done in my life – just behind the birth of my sons.
It’s gonna be pretty hard to top this one. I guess Kid 1 or Kid 2 are going to have to have children another own in order to really surpass this.
Tell me about your most memorable vacation.
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The article “France re-revisited” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob
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