This summer I had the incredible opportunity to study as a student ambassador in China. This opportunity was available through People to People (P2P). In order to travel with People to People, you must be recommended. I highly recommend traveling with People to People if you ever have the chance to. It is a fantastic organization, you learn much, and can also teach others!
I first received a letter of recommendation in the mail, inviting me to attend an informational meeting about traveling to China. I actually held on to the letter, not daring to even dream of the possibility about going (my father was severely overprotective and paranoid. I had never been permitted to go to a sleepover, so why would he allow me to go halfway across the world?) nonetheless, I kept reading and rereading the little letter.
One day the subject was brought up as was the letter presented. We agreed to go to the informational meeting--just to hear about it and then discuss the possibility of going. No promises.
We went to the meeting and I was completely inspired. I longed to go, as I've longed for nothing more in life. Still, a cruel wanting would not guarantee my going.
To my delight, my parents permitted me to apply for the trip. (One would need to have letters of recommendation as well as have a personal interview to be accepted).
All of that was completed. I prayed to be accepted. I had studied the Chinese culture since the summer of 2009. I adore the Chinese culture, I've taken classes on it, taken language classes, and have independently researched. I love China. I plan to major in Chinese in college. If I could be a part of the People to People journey, it would literally be the first step.
Still, I dared not to hope too much. I know how it is to have your dreams crushed. I guarded myself a call that would inform me that I had not been accepted.
To my shock and utter delight, i received a phone call informing me that I had been accepted. To this day, I remember sitting on my bed, writing down the needed info before hanging up. As soon as the phone call ended, I held unto the phone for a few seconds before just sobbing. I was going to China. I WAS GOING TO CHINA!! I cried for over two hours--just from the birthing oh hope from within me. This was a true dream--something I was afraid to hope for, and it was Real.
But with this wonderful realization also came the realization that it came with a $7,000 pricetag. A pricetag that we could not afford.
The next several months were brimmed with fundraising. Most fundraisers we did actually cost us more money than we gained. But a few fundraisers worked out very well.
I would like to send a very special thank you to: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Ruscher Tire & Auto, and many teachers at Carson: Mr. Riley, Ms. Sparks, Mr & Mrs. Board, Ms. Hunter, Mr. Reynolds, Mrs. Shue, and Mrs. Withers. Also a huge thanks to pawpaw and mawmaw, my dad and mother, and everyone else who contributed in such a special way.
Fundraising helped a lot but in the end, we did have to take out loans in order to pay for it all. I'm hoping to get a job this summer in order to help pay it off.
People to People is an international organization initiated by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 to promote world peace and understanding.
For this journey, we were to be student ambassadors to China. There were forty students split into two delegations in North Carolina: Charlotte (which I was in) and Raleigh.
The two delegations were to fly out to Chicago separately, meet and then fly together to Beijing, China. Our delegations would stay together for seventeen days in China, traveling in Beijing, Xi'An, Guilin, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuzhen, and Hangzhou. It would be an experience of a lifetime.
An ancient Chinese proverb goes "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." This People to People journey, this trip, this "step" is truly only the beginning for me.
