How did I get here?

Have to go all out for St. Mike's Kentucky Derby.

If you asked me two years ago where I would be I would probably prepping for my junior year P-Day. It was always the plan to go abroad to Ireland fall of junior year and be home for spring. It is the most fun semester after all.

Winter weekends are spent falling on my ass at Smuggs, or skiing as most people call it, on Saturdays, or patches of ice at school. Then when the sun comes out its time for sundresses and my favorite St. Mike's traditions: bringing your tapestry out to the quad to sit and study with friends, enjoy Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's on Church Street, celebrating P-Day and Derby Day with the entire SMC community. These are some of the traditions that make St. Mike's the close-knit awesome community I have come to call my home the past few years.

Plans changed sophomore year when I joined rugby in the fall. It was the best thing to happen to me at St. Mike's. I was already friends with a bunch of people on the team, it made joining and loving it that much easier. I knew I had to go abroad in the spring because I would be playing rugby in the fall.

Sophomore spring rolled around and at our annual MJD meeting our professors strongly encouraged us to go to a new place where we wouldn't speak the language or know the customs. It wasn't until one of my professors strongly suggested SIT's Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media program that I started looking into it.

Camp friends are the best friends. Can't
wait to see some in my travels after.

A senior that had done the program a year earlier was actually in one of my classes. I struck up the conversation and she told me all about it. I was fascinated. I quickly decided that Morocco was the place for me. I applied through St. Mike's and was allowed to go. Then in the summer I applied through SIT and I got into the program.

I was spending the summer in Maine as a camp counselor, which was by far one of the most fun summers ever. When I got the news I was accepted into the program I was ecstatic, my campers and friends all knew right away. I rode that high all the way to fall semester. Sometime in October I booked my round trip tickets to Paris, because I knew I wanted to travel and see my friends who lived abroad.

Looking back I just think: how the hell did I get here? Who knew I would join rugby and I could actually have so much love and passion for a sport? Who knew I would choose Morocco of all places to go abroad? And who knew I would be a summer camp counselor in Maine? However, I'm thankful for every one of these things because they made me the smart-ass, confident traveler I am today and I would be doing none of this without the support from my amazing friends I have met along the way. 

So, P-Day is fast approaching at St. Mike's I miss it all dearly, but I wouldn't change this semester with all of my crazy shenanigans for anything. Have fun and stay safe St. Mike's.

A few days ago I decided to come to Tangier with one of my friends because we finished our first drafts of our ISPJ stories. We just got in. I know it will be a fun time. At this point I'm just asking for crazy stuff to happen. I just planned my travels after, they involve an overnight bus from London to Zurich, a day in Zurich and the next day a train from Zurich to Rome to meet my family for our vacation. It won't go all according to plan as I know from my travels in Morocco. I promise - Inshalla- mom and dad I'll make it to Rome.

P.S. Becca and Oly thanks for some crazy adventures and learning with me nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. How the hell am I gonna survive traveling with anyone else?

The view of Rabat's Centre Ville from the top of the Terminus hotel in Rabat.