When I reflect on my journey from Providence to doing a Fulbright here in Spain, there isn’t much I would change. But, if I could go back in time, one thing I would change is when I started to believe that travel wasn’t just for other people -- but that it was also for me.
Growing up, my family didn’t have much money, so most of our traveling was local around Texas with the odd trip to California to visit family. Even visiting Dallas seemed like travelling internationally compared to the trips we usually took. This meant that all throughout high school and the first part of college, I thought travelling was for other people. People with money, spoke more than one language or were more “cultured” than I was had that privilege. That was part of the reason I didn’t study abroad while in college -- the logistics of getting a passport, buying a ticket, and dealing with time zone changes and navigating unfamiliar cities seemed overwhelming and beyond my abilities. In college, I had a friend (from the Rio Grande Valley no less!) who was determined to travel internationally for Spring Break. We saved up money from our campus job for a whole semester to be able to afford it. Thanks to her help, I was able to travel abroad for the first time in Spain!
