Travelling has always been something that has intrigued me. Any time I got to travel was such a happy and exciting experience. Though I am by no means what I’d consider an experienced traveler, I’ve made it around to some places, mostly within the USA.

Growing up, I was extremely involved in my church, and though I’m now away from home at university, I still remain very involved. One of the things I did at church was be part of the different music programs, which has always been a passion of mine. My church has a successful music program, with things like choir, hand bells, musical theater, and more. I was pretty much involved in anything I could be, but one of the most impactful things was choir.

This program involves five different choirs: Cherub (kindergareden-1^st), Carol (2^nd-3^rd), Chorister (4^th-6^th), Chapel (7^th-12^th), and Chancel (adults). I started as early as possible, at 5 years old in the Cherub Choir. I instantly loved it. I continued through each choir as I grew up, and was ecstatic to finally be old enough for Chapel Choir.

One of the many great things about Chapel Choir is that as a reward for giving up Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings for choir, we could go on Choir Tour, as long as we had at least 80% attendance. Each year, the choir travels to a different place, both to have a good time and perform concerts along the way. Some of my favorite memories come from these tours. As I was part of this particular choir for as long as I could be (6 years), I got to go on six different tours.

My first tour was Colorado, and one thing we did was go white water rafting in the river. It was extremely cold, but also extremely fun.  The next summer was New York City. This was amazing for me, because at the time I wanted to live in NYC when I grew up. I got to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, and more.

Next came Texas, which was fun because we went to this huge and well-known water park called Schlitterbahn. The year after that was Canada, which was probably my favorite of all. I loved seeing Niagara Falls! After that year we went to New Orleans, and then my last tour was in Washington D.C., which was really special as it is the capital of the USA. We saw tons of important monuments and museums.

Most of my traveling has come from these tours, but I also went to Mexico when I was about ten. I actually stayed for two months as an exchange student with two different host families. It was wonderful, but I was young and it was so long ago that I don’t remember much, unfortunately.

I have also been to California, Missouri, and Arkansas, for family, but these are mainly the places that I have traveled to so far. I can’t wait to see so much more of the world this semester, and to add more places to my list of travels!