One Journey’s Ripple Effect
Halley Rogers
High school trip to Spain in 2013 at age 18.
Giants. That’s what Miguel de Cervantes’ tragically comedic character Don Quixote thought when he encountered these structures on his journey. I craned my neck toward the blue, cloudless sky at a whitewashed windmill with lattice turbines. I studied the novel Don Quixote in school, and seeing Cervantes’ inspiration in person left me slightly starstruck. For most people, they looked like centuries-old windmills dotting the vacant, scorched plains in Castilla de La Mancha–a region of Spain characterized by farmland and small towns.
This was just a brief pit stop on a weeklong trip to Spain with my high school. Earlier that day in Toledo, we learned how Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisted and the influence this blend of cultures had on the city. Spain was fascinating and wildly different from life back home in rural New Hampshire. Afraid I would forget the details of these new experiences, I wrote in a journal the whole trip–a practice I’ve maintained–sharing my reactions and learnings. In an entry from one of our last stops on the trip, I wrote “I loved Seville and I could definitely see myself studying abroad there.”
Flash forward to 2016. I’m studying abroad in Seville my spring semester of junior year in college. I’m living with a retired woman who speaks no English in her 70m2 apartment on a pedestrian cobblestone street tucked behind a church from the 12th century. I eat lunch at 2pm, take a siesta, and sit down for dinner at 9pm. In my free time, I’m taking dance classes to learn sevillianas, a folkdance popular during the April Fair, and attending language exchanges to practice my Spanish with local university students. One of them actually ends up becoming my husband nearly a decade later.
My first trip to Spain planted a seed that made me curious about the world. In just seven days, I was inspired to continue learning a second language, pursue opportunities to live abroad both short-term and long-term, and immerse myself in a new culture with excitement. Few things can impact you deeply in a short period of time, and I believe travel is one of them. Travel has always been an opportunity to discover more about myself and the new people and places I encounter. It makes me appreciate what I have and how I grew up. It gives me the perspective to analyze issues my own country faces like gun control, barriers to voting, and affordable healthcare that other nations simply don’t register as problems.Travel exposes me to people who dress differently, practice different religions, and speak different languages. I wouldn’t be the same person if I didn’t have these experiences, and I find I’m all the better for it.
As I’m standing in the middle of Castilla de La Mancha as an 18-year-old senior, surrounded by nothing but the giant windmills, I never would have imagined I’d find myself back in Spain in the future. I’ve learned that the amazing thing about travel is that it might lead you to an unexpected destination.
