Kacey Kerlick

The past two times I have been to Europe it has been with my family, and I will tell you it was a completely different experience. When I travel with my family I already know my family dynamic, we each have jobs that we have had our entire lives together. This trip I had to learn a new dynamic, I had to find my place within this specific group of people. I am pleased to say I found my place as "Mama Duck", when our group split the way it did our side of the group ended up with no professor. So we all had to look out for each other, we all counted to make sure we had everybody, we all watched each other's backs for pick pockets and we all made sure that everyone was as happy on the trip as they could be. It just kind of fell in a way that I was always at the front of the line of "Ducks" because I knew how to use the subway before others.

Once the rest of my little group got the hang of the “Tube” we all helped each other out and our line became a clump of ducks. I will be forever grateful to these ducks of mine because they showed me what it could be like to live overseas, and having to make new friends while you are there. They pushed me out of my comfort zone everyday which helped me get the full experience of this trip. We all have differing opinions on if we would live in London or Paris and it was interesting to see all of our different likes and dislikes of the countries come to light.

I think it would be possible for me to live in London from my experience on this trip, I know how to get around and a little bit about the culture. Logistically I could easily move there and start the rest of my life, but I know now after this trip I wouldn’t want to. I am an American and as I said many times to Emma G “I will go down with this ship”. I can trace my family back to the American revolution and every major war since then, I was born into a love for this country. As I said I have gone to Europe with my family before and when I went with them it was like taking a piece of that love with us, but without them I know that I could not live a very happy life “Across the Pond”.

I learned something else very Important on this trip, what kind of adult I wanted to become. Thanks to this trip setting the example I now know that I want to be the kind of adult that appreciates the life they have, while still having respect for those less fortunate. In the future I will respect those who work for me, and listen to them because they have a different perspective on life than I do. I will respect and try to understand all cultures around me, and not expect them to conform to my ideals. I will teach my children my same love of culture and art that I do because people that truly appreciate art are far and few these days.