by Hannah Bredar

Packing your suitcase for a month-long vacation with complete strangers, no electronics besides a camera and no way of contacting the outside world. Sound frightening? Junior Carson Beineman says that her adventure trip this summer was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Beineman got catalogs for adventure trips in the mail and one day decided that she wanted to take the chance on one. Beineman recalls that she has been out of the country before when she went to Kenya and Tanzania but has never been gone for a whole month without being able to contact family or friends. However, Beineman did not think twice when given the opportunity to go.

“I went to Fiji for 10 days and Australia for 16,” Beineman said. “I surfed, sailed, did community service, sea kayaked, whitewater rafted, hiked and scuba dived.”

According to Beineman, last summer’s travelers were only allowed to bring 16 items of clothing along with hiking and sleeping gear. Even with a limited amount of clothing, Beineman still enjoyed the trip. When visiting Fiji, Beineman experienced many different customs.

“Fiji is a third world country, so going there definitely changed my look on life,” Beineman said.

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Traveling the world can help someone see a different view on life and can even help in choosing a future career, according to social studies teacher Denise Rueschhoff. After being an exchange student in Australia when she was 16 years old, Rueschhoff realized that she wanted to travel all around the world.

“I’ve always had an adventuresome spirit and I just had an interest in different parts of the world,” Rueschhoff said. “I also think that [traveling] probably inspired me to adopt my children internationally.”

After living in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, Rueschhoff recalls that she learned to appreciate her own culture like never before.

“Even though I loved Australia and loved the people, there’s something about your own culture that [living abroad] really makes you proud of where you come from,” Rueschhoff said.

Theology teacher Matthew Bertalott believes that traveling can give people a new perspective of different cultures.

“Anytime you have an opportunity to travel, you should take it,” Bertalott said.

Whether traveling far away or close to home, one will always bring something back home. Travel can teach someone many things, from viewing the world differently to appreciating one’s own culture more.

“There is not a finer education or a better education than travel,” Bertalott said. “Travel can teach you things that books or teachers or videos can never touch.”

Beineman walks off her international flight and into the busy airport of LAX. Hands filled with tissues and duffel bags, the 12 teen travelers say their goodbyes as they part their separate ways. After spending a month with teens that were once strangers at the beginning of the trip, Beineman recalls that leaving the friends she made was difficult.

“[Saying goodbye was] probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Beineman said. “When you spend a month with the same 12 people, you get extremely close with them. All of us cried our eyes out when we had to go our separate ways.”