An Overall Satisfying Experience

Unfortunately, my Parisian adventure has come to an end. After almost 16 total hours of travel time, I'm finally home and almost caught up on sleep from jet lag. Reflecting on my experience, I think that the overall feeling I can take away from our trip is an increased sense of confidence in myself.

Before going on this trip, I was really self-conscious about my lack of street smarts. I have no problem in finite class, but when it comes to getting around a city I really struggle. I now know that although these kinds of things may not come naturally to me, I have the ability to figure it out. I was really nervous to fly home completely by myself- it was the first time I had ever flown by myself and an added challenge of it being an international flight. Although I was very anxious, with a little research beforehand I was able to figure out what terminal I needed to go to and was able to follow the signs and make it all the way home completely on my own. Making the international journey home really made me feel like I was growing up and now I feel like flying by myself is not something I should be afraid of at all. If I can fly internationally, I definitely think I can handle flying inside this country.

This trip also involved a few design projects, which I previously felt like I was really lacking experience in. I was able to learn how to use a sewing machine and utilize the creativity I didn't think I had. After we had completed our design projects, we had the opportunity to create a "design story" and style a photoshoot for one of our projects. I chose to model my feather project, which I was nervous about because I'm not used to being the center of attention. My design story was modeled after an ad I found where the model was spinning in nature. I really like the natural and free feeling, so when I modeled my feather headband I wore a flowy dress with a background of different kinds of trees and twirled to create an action shot. I think it was a really good experience for me to learn more about design and become more confident in myself by being the center of attention. I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out!

This increase in confidence is something that my family has already noticed- they have already said that I seem much more confident and independent. I'm really glad I chose take this experience to do something out of my comfort zone and learn about another culture at the same time. I think I've really grown as a person as a result of this trip and I'll be much more willing to seek out more adventurous opportunities like this in the future. I can't wait to see where life takes me next!