Grab The World By The Horns

Kimberly Caporale in Peru feeding a llama.
Photo Credit- Lindsay MeGill

Grab The World By The Horns

Editorial By: Kimberly Caporale

College is the perfect time to embrace all sorts of things, like learning to keep yourself organized, what is important and what’s not, becoming part of a new organization and taking classes that might actually interest you.  Something that seems to fall by the wayside though, is traveling. 

Traveling, even within the U.S., opens your eyes to all sorts of things.  Like different types of food, different leisure activities, different dialect, but more important than all that in the sense of independence that comes from traveling. 

I know a lot of people who have never even left the state and honestly that is shocking to me since most of my family vacations were to FL or to visit family up north.  But some people have never had a reason to go anywhere with the beach and mountains being so close, what more could one want?

In high school, I traveled with a group from school to Peru.  It was the most enlightening experience my parents could have ever given me.  It opened my eyes to an entirely different way of life that existed just a few hours away via airplane.  In ten days I saw so many different things that are still to this day indescribable. 

Traveling to Peru started my love affair with going to different places and trying new things.  I’ve flown to Florida by myself multiple times along with Chicago and New York.  Being immersed in the hustle of airports, trying to find a gate, or in a new city attempting to find this great place to eat that someone told you about. 

Sure it may seem daunting, but at the same time it is the best feeling in the world and also eye opening, widening your view point of the world, which is what a liberal arts education is all about. 

Going somewhere new may be too much for a student, which is alright.  But there are other opportunities out there.  Different departments organize trips to many places.  Sometimes this requires taking a specific class and other times it only requires that you inquire about it.  Some clubs do trips so students can attend a particular conference, which links you with others who have the same interests as you or who are in the same field. 

Take these opportunities that are practically being handed to you.  There may never be another eye opening experiences like these next four years offered to you again.