It's a Herrick kind of thing...: 30 Day Challenge...Day 13.

Day 13-discuss your first out of state travel experience.

My first travel endeavour out of state would have to be when I went to the National FFA Convention in Louisville, KY. I was a freshman though, and I don't really remember what all happended and what I all did, so I am writing about my second travel experience....Mobile, Alabama.

I went to Mobile on a church mission trip with 1 other person that I knew from my church. We boarded a charter bus filled with kids our age and younger/older who we didn't know from Northeast Iowa, and headed south! I remember being so nervous to get on a bus where everyone knew each other, but us. We started off and ended up halfway there and spent the night in a hotel. I quickly made friends with the two girls sitting in front of us on the bus.

When we arrived in Alabama, we met up with a huge group of other Catholic students who were on the same mission as we were. We were split into groups and told what we would be doing for the rest of the time we were there. I was a part of a group that was working on making a closet in the bathroom of a house that would be made available for low income families in the area.

This trip literally changed me. It was one of those things that makes you appreciate all you have and all you work for. Not only did I get to help build something for someone else, but I also made some friends who I will never forget. I got to see the ocean too, and that was amazing. Nothing I could have ever imagined.

I also got to see the ocean, the landscape, and the city of Mobile before hurricane Katrina hit the area the following fall. It was hard to watch the things on TV knowing you had seen all of the area in such a much better time, and knowing it would probably never look the same.

This trip was amazing; it made me step out of my comfort zone and let me experience life in a totally different area of the country. I am so thankful I got to experience such a great trip.