When I first received an email about a study abroad trip I sent it to my dad, and said “Wow this is cool maybe one day I should do a trip like this.” He replied and said “Why wouldn’t you do it now?” So, I did it. I had a pretty rough second semester of my sophomore year, so I was really looking forward to getting to be in the Caribbean for an entire month. It was something to be excited for. I was a little nervous going into it, because I would be in another country for an entire month, and did not know anyone personally. I was nervous that
I would not make friends easily, and I would just be in my hotel room all the time by myself. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. This trip exceeded all of my expectations. I could not have dreamed of a better time. I made 15 new friends, had so many fun experiences that I’ve never done before, and furthered my knowledge on Public Relations. When I started out, I was unsure of what I truly wanted to do with my career. After this trip I realized I genuinely like the environmental side of things. I like the interviewing, interpreting my finding, and conducting plans. This stuff actually excites me. Which I am glad because before this I was not very excited, and felt like I was in the dark about a lot of things.
I am from the South Side of Chicago so we don’t have a lot of these very adventurous things to do near us. Almost everything we did there was my first time doing it. I have never been on a big boat like the one we went on for the day cruise, or eaten dinner on a boat in general. I have never been snorkeling, and the fact we got to do it twice on this trip gives me the itch to do it more. I want to be able to see all different kinds of animals in person, like the turtle I saw at lunch on the day cruise. I have never been horse back ridding. This was one of the scariest, but coolest things I have done in my entire life. I am scared of heights so the whole going up, and down the mountain part terrified me. Not too much though because the view from the mountains looking out to the water was absolutely stunning. Then, taking the horses into the water was a dream come true. That entire excursion was taken right from my bucket list.
Then one of the most memorable moments for me was on the last Thursday of the trip. Kendall and I went down to Danny’s to watch the sunset. We were laying on our towels listening to good music and reminiscing on the trip so far. While we were talking Kendall screamed and I turned around, and there was the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It was an entire rainbow. I saw the end of a rainbow. We were in awe, I look again it is a perfect double rainbow. While we were starring not being able to comprehend what we are looking at it started to rain a little which made the moment so much more magical. There were sailboats, and a cruise ship passing behind it, and then the coast guard plane actually flew through the rainbow. After all that madness we still had the sunset to watch. As the sun was going down the white clouds around it actually looked like heaven. If I could describe what heaven looked like it would be the clouds as that sun went down. If I had to describe the best part of this trip it would that Thursday before we left. That day, and this whole trip has been beautiful.
I can try, but I will never be able to properly put into words how much this trip meant to me. Thank you Dr. VanDyke and Dr. Hayes for being the best possible professors for this trip. You guys also helped with making it so special. I am forever grateful.
Mary Kay Barrins
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