Today I’m grateful for that time I packed it all up into a suitcase and capitalized on revision month at Trinity College Dublin by traveling around Europe with the amazing Chelsea. While so many countries encourage their youth to go out and explore the world, it seems insurmountable and honestly daunting to the average American student, largely because we view the rest of the world as “other” and traveling a luxury reserved for the wealthy. I don’t often recognize that it was pretty crazy to just do it and make a far off dream of traveling Europe on such a limited budget real! I’m so grateful for the courage it took to plan, adapt and travel as 19 year old vegans across 11 countries in 14 days, via plane, train and car. We saw catacombs, cathedrals, towers, castles, museums, rivers, vegetarian restaurants, fountains, many Ryanair flights and a mineral bath, amongst a plethora of other visual delights. We couchsurfed, stayed in hotels, hostels and even a convent and came back with such a rich understanding of what it means to be human, across so many geo-cultural boundaries. We really aren’t that different from one another, no matter where in the world we are; seeing that, recognizing that and valuing that makes all the difference.