I Believe in Trying New Things

Jack6 Comments

This was a essay I wrote at the end of 5th grade about our world trip. I hope you enjoy!

Have you ever taken a road trip in Morocco? Seen the great pyramids of Giza? The Roman Colosseum?

I believe in trying new things. And I feel really lucky that I have the opportunities I have.

When I was ten years old during the summer before 5th grade, my family and I decided we were going to take a trip around the world to learn about different cultures, and spend more time as a family. We had been saving and thinking about this for years, but it never expanded into reality until last year, the great year before corona.

We all had our doubts about it, but I think I had the most mixed feelings about the whole big idea. I didn’t want to leave my friends and life, because I had always loved Seattle. I was worried my friends would forget about me and life would never be the same when we got back.

I didn’t want to get out of my comfort zone, the things that I am used to in everyday life, like my house, school, and friends. I imagined the trip would be exactly opposite, having to constantly pack up and move, and living out of a suitcase.

Finally I realized that maybe I should do it because it would be a fun once in a lifetime experience. I wouldn’t say it was easy leaving. Since we were going to rent out our house while we were away, we had to remove everything from it and throw those things in a storage unit. And trust me, we have a lot of clutter.

We (99% my dad) removed furniture, trinkets, food, books, beds and more in only one week. During this, there was a lot of chaos, excitement, and franticness, while everything was both cluttered and organized in its own way. We were as busy as an army of bees. I was worried and psyched to leave, I really did not know what to think between the two. But finally, we got out of the house in a hurry, and flew to London for our first adventure.

We got to learn many new things by traveling the world. We learned that millions of people in South Africa are living in tiny shacks crammed together to this day. (Post apartheid millions of people are still living apart in poverty) We tried new delicious foods, learned about fascinating cultures, listened and inspected numerous animals on safari, and most of all just experienced doing stuff I had never thought of doing in my time.

Everybody always asks me “what was your favorite place?”, but I always respond that “I don’t know”. Ok, there were a lot of places we went to, but I’ll talk about one place that really made our travels come to life.

Atlas Studios is a film studio nestled deep in the deserts of Morocco, a place where a whole bunch of famous movies were filmed. When we toured here, we got to see a whole fake town, and a ginormous castle, filled with scaffolding. Even though the castle (used for the city of Meereen in the Game of Thrones) was all artificial, I liked it because we were allowed to walk and climb it unlike the precious old forts we saw elsewhere. I have always wanted to walk a towering fortress wall, or mock a gladiator fight in an arena all to my self. If I hadn’t got out of my comfort zone to go on the trip, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see and experience Atlas.

Our whole adventure was like a jumbled eight months of learning and trying new things, because it was totally something we had never experienced before. I am really amazed that the whole thing is now just in the past, and that it is over.

Now that I’m back from those eight months, I’ve had a lot of reflecting to do. Before we did it, I would’ve said that I was never going on a world trip, and that I always wanted to stay in Seattle at school with my friends. I used to value things like friendship, education in a real classroom, and recreation. But now, sitting here after, I’ve realized that it’s good to take on new things even if you don’t know what they hold.

I’ve also figured out that adventure, new friendship, and most of all, family are essential to me as well. Spending ten months with family has made me realize how important they are. Even that was a new experience for me that I wouldn’t have gone through if we hadn’t gone away on our adventure. (scratch that, everyone is spending more time with family in quarantine, we still would’ve had extra time together.)

There were the times when I was sad, wanted to go home, wanted to see my friends, or was frustrated with schoolwork or bored, but those times were very few. Overall we had a great trip, we learned, watched, felt, and tasted the world. This is why I strongly believe in trying new experiences, because even the things you doubt the most about them could turn into new exciting adventures.

To learn more about our trip:
– Blog posts: https://worldschool.travel.blog/
– YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/OnTheRoadWithLJ
– Video we made from Atlas Studios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy5MpkkMbsc

Thanks so much for checking those out and reading my essay!

– Jack