Trip Reflection Blogpost

Home Again: Final Reflection Post 

Jacob R. Orr

    It's hard to express how I am feeling now. Melancholic might be the right term. But it is a bitter-sweet melancholy; as the sorrow of joys past duels with the relief of being home and at rest. 

    For quite a while it felt like this trip was a looming threat. Another complication in a period of a great many trials and tribulations prior to graduation. While it was by no means my first time abroad, let alone in the UK, it was the first time I had done an international trip without my parents. The thought that if something went wrong it was all on me hovered about me for the duration of the journey across the Atlantic but it faded pretty quickly once our group made landfall.

    I am incredibly glad I decided to take this trip and the memories I've made this May will likely provide the same potency that my previous experiences in the UK express. My only gripe about this trip was it's brevity.

    I made new friends, I saw new places, and I get face-to-face with some of the greatest treasures of the planet Earth. I tried new foods, navigated abroad alone, and built confidence I hadn't realized I needed. Suffice to say, I feel like I could travel across Europe again solo.

    The best times during the trip were however the moments I spent with my peers. Going on outings into town, eating meals together, and appreciating the finer points of the UK and Ireland with friends, both new and old, were truly the best of times.

    While I have acquired to confidence to go it alone, the trip has also taught me just how unnecessary that confidence is. Everything is better with friends and travel is no exception.

    Now that I'm home again, it almost feels a little sobering to wake up with no plan and no exciting outings planned. It's occurring to me during this rest period post-trip that I'm going to have less of this variety of experience going forward. I'm a college graduate now and my world is, in all likelihood, going to get smaller as time goes on. I'm grateful then that I've had the opportunity to go on trips like this throughout my life and experience these things while the getting's good.