Traveling is something that I love. The feeling of just waking up at 3:00 am, after not being able to fall asleep until 1, knowing that you are going to the airport, and getting out of Naperville, is one of the best feelings, as well as the most tiring, but still a good feeling. I have been blessed with the opportunity to be able to experience different places so I thought I would talk about the areas that I have traveled to the past few years from my least favorite to favorite.
First, to start off this was not a bad trip. I have been to a few other places but this is just one of my top few places. Over spring break my freshman year, my family decided to take the drive up to Gulf Shores Alabama. Many of our family friends were going, so we ended up spending the trip with them. We drove out there first, which was not a bad experience because I got the opportunity to visit some colleges on the way. Although once we got to Alabama, it was muggy, cold, and no sun to be seen. I remember looking at the forecast for the week we were there and there were only 2 days saying it was going to be sunny, and the highest temperature was 65 degrees. Which was not as bad as it was home, but I was hoping to be a little warmer. Although, despite the weather we had, we still did a lot of fun activities. Our family friends are all in the Central territory of Naperville, so we don’t usually see them as often, but we had the whole week to catch up and be able to spend a lot of time together. We went to this one place, where I wish I could tell you the name, but they had live music, an amazing restaurant and fun games for us to do. Then on the last day, I got stung by a jellyfish. This is now something that I like to tell people because who gets stung by a jellyfish, and no I did not pee on myself. So that was the real highlight of my trip besides the restaurant that served a popcorn chicken salad, but it was a salad with chicken, lettuce, and literal popcorn!
Another place that I visited was Myrtle Beach over my Junior year spring break. That was also a chilly trip, but I never thought I needed a vacation more in my life. I was having a very hard time when covid hit. I was feeling very isolated and just was struggling with my mental health. I was getting over a bad breakup and needed to get out of here. We did drive to Myrtle Beach which was not as bad as I remember it was, besides me being so anxious to just lay on the beach. I remember the moment I got there, I could not wait to go to sleep and wake up to lay on the beach. It was one of the most peaceful times I have had in a long time. I woke up early, went outside, grabbed a book (yes a book), sat down in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and read for hours. Once it got a little warmer, I got up and went back into the room to make breakfast, change into a swimsuit, grab headphones, and just lay down and relax. My parents knew I had a lot going on, and they could tell I needed a vacation, so they let me be for a little while. It was the nicest thing that I have ever experienced. I also decided on our last day that I just wanted to walk. I walked for about 2 hours on the beach and ended up being so distracted from just walking and listening to music that I didn’t realize how far I went. I never knew how bad I just needed a vacation in my life.
Also, over quarantine, I and my family took a trip to Marco Island, the year I was going to be a Junior. We took this trip with my cousins from my mom’s side of the family, which are all the ones that are closest in age. We got a very nice house to stay in with them, and I even got to celebrate my birthday there. It was a very fun birthday because I just got to lay out by the pool, and we also rented a boat, so we did a sunset ride on the ocean which was so beautiful. That trip was mainly just for us to have a getaway, so we mainly stayed in our house area and relaxed. Our day consisted of waking up, going to the pool, taking the boat out, eating dinner, fishing, then repeating. It was just so fun to have a trip with our extended family and be able to get out of Illinois.
Another trip I took was to Arizona. We went when I was in 7th grade, and the fact that it is my second favorite trip is saying a lot. We went to Arizona when I was very little, so once we went this time, my parents took advantage of the trip and we did so many activities. We first went horseback riding. Ever since I was 3, I wanted to go so bad. I rode ponies for the longest time, then the moment we went to Arizona, I finally got the opportunity to ride a horse. It was not just any horseback riding experience, it was a sunset ride on the mountains. Wow, it was absolutely beautiful. I still can’t even describe to you how perfect it was. Also, we went hiking on the camelback mountain, which is known to be one of the hardest places to hike. I was a little 7th-grade girl that did not workout besides going to soccer practice, so the hike was a little more challenging than I thought it was going to be, but it was a really good experience and it was so worth the panic attacks I had throughout the whole time when we reached the top. The view was absolutely breathtaking.
Finally, my favorite trip was Jamaica. I wish I could explain the whole entire trip but I would be going on for so long. It was the first time that our whole family went out of the country and it was so much more different than what I thought it would be. The people, culture, and nature were all so beautiful. We planned this trip during spring break. My sister was a senior but due to covid, we had to push the trip 3 times. So we were all hoping that it would be the best experience, which exceeded our expectations. To break it down for you, we first started off by hiking out a waterfall, called Dunns River falls. It was so pretty and because you were in the water most of the time, you would never sweat or feel tired. The water was so clear I could see everything under me. We also did cliff jumping, which was so pretty. I have never had so much fun just jumping into the water. We also did zip lining which was gorgeous going through all the trees and walking around through the forest areas. We also did snorkeling, which was unbelievable. I held a sea urchin and a pufferfish. It was the coolest thing to see all of the living things in the water. Finally, another excursion we did was swimming with dolphins. One year my family went to clear water and met the famous dolphin, Winter, but I was little and was so scared that I did not go. I regretted that choice forever because I never thought I would get to do something like that. Swimming with the dolphins was probably the happiest I felt in a long time. Outside of the excursions, we went to the beach and went swimming. It was an all-inclusive resort as well. One thing that I enjoyed a lot was not only the unlimited food I could have but was one person. My parents went to grab something from one of the bars and met a bartender. They told us to come up from the beach and we sat down and talked to him for hours. He was the most inspiring person that I have ever met. I could not believe how much he opened up my eyes to the real world. I just never would have thought that an experience outside of the country would have so much impact on me.
Overall, traveling has given me so many chances to experience the world that I live in. Different cultures, nature, environment, etc, had made me look at everything so much more differently.