[Stories & Tips]

When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.”
–D. H. Lawrence

I could never conceive that something like this could happen to me.
“Mr. Casas, I’m sorry to say this but I don’t think I can go to Europe after all. I just can't afford it. Thank you for inviting me anyway,” I said with utter disappointment on a cool, March day in 2007.

“Amanda, don’t even worry about anything. You’re going,” he told me confidently with his hands folded in his lap.

I didn’t believe him.

“What do you mean, I’m going?” I shuffled my feet, feeling slightly awkward.

“We have everything taken care of for you,” Mr. Casas said with an honest smile on his face.

I stared at him blankly for a few moments, before I fully grasped what he was telling me. My eyes started to water around the edges as a half-smile began to grow on my lips.

“Thank you,” was all I could whisper.

The day I stepped foot on European land was the day my life changed forever. I watched and listened with liberal eyes and ears.

My hair swept across my face as black taxi cabs zoomed past me in England. My ears fluttered to the sound of pigeons as they flew across a historic piazza in Italy. My nose wiggled at the French as they savored espresso and nibbled on dark chocolate. My eyes widened with delight as the Germans danced and drank in their famous beer gardens. My damp hair glistened as rain droplets sprinkled from the sky in Switzerland.

It felt wonderful. It felt pure.

I have always acknowledged the idea that life is bigger than me, that my problems are miniscule in the greater scheme of things, that the world is so grand and epic, and that there are other people on this planet dealing with different obstacles, experiencing a different life.

This time was distinct because Europe justified everything I knew before. Europe proved it to me, made me believe it.

To consider that only 13% of Americans even have passports, I am wholly fortunate that I somehow attained the rare opportunity to experience life from a different perspective, honestly and fruitfully. When I truly observed my surroundings, I could feel something real and I was able to understand that the world is so much bigger than I could have ever imagined. It made me grasp how narcissism is so prevalent in modern day society, in the sense that peoples' heightened ignorance leads them to conjure up anything they desire about what the world is, what life is.

To have experienced Europe for free was more than I could ever ask for in a lifetime, and I am pleasantly surprised that I got more out of the experience than I anticipated. Not only has the trip helped me become a more conscious and aware individual but more importantly, it made me acknowledge my own fragility. I understand now that although there are many ways to live, that people have their own problems and that rules and regulations may differ, all people suffer. All people love. All people hurt. All people feel.

Despite the worlds’ grand differences, the human condition remains in-tact.