After a whirlwind day of travel in the summer of 2021, I found myself in the beautiful city of Yerevan. This was my second time in the city, so it wasn’t too alien to me, yet its sights never failed to dazzle me. I, along with about 10 other young adults, had chosen to dedicate three weeks of my summer to working with the Paros Foundation in Armenia. We would be spending our time in the hot Armenia sun painting schools, distributing food to those living in domigs (storage bins sent over after the 1991 earthquake now used as housing), and playing with the local children, all while cultivating our own little Armenian-American community. Being Armenian is a huge part of my identity. I was raised by my medzmama, who immigrated to America with my dad and his two brothers in the late 1970s from Lebanon. Her husband had been a civilian casualty in the Civil War, so the responsibility of supporting a family fell on her shoulders. The Armenian community was instrumental in helping her adjust to life in the US. She raised me with those same values, always keeping the community in the forefront of my mind. She took me to Armenian Sunday School every week, where us kids learned about the Armenian religion and got to practice our Armenian speaking skills. I was taught to recognize an Armenian by the tell-tale -ian or -yan at the end of our last names and used that to make friends with all of the Armenian kids at school or in my extracurricular activities. I grew to love my culture more and more, trying to learn everything about it and making as many connections in my community as possible. This all culminated in my trip with the Paros Foundation. It was the summer before I left home for college, so I felt it was a bit of a test run of living independently without my parents for a short period of time. My experience was amazing. I was surrounded by like-minded people who came from backgrounds I could relate too. We all had a common cause of improving our motherland. Although our time in Armenia was short, our connections with the locals, the country, and between those in our group have persevered. I will always remember Hasmig, the girl who took an instant liking to me at the Debi Arach Learning Center in Gyumri, Marine, our amazing guide who knew everything there was to know about our country, and Raffi, a local around our age involved with the organization who showed us around. I felt like I had a better understanding of my own background through my interactions with them. Today, I am still in contact with most of my friends who went on the Paros trip with me. We manage to meet a couple of times a year, even though some of our group members live as far away as Tennessee! The value of community has only been emphasized during my time in college, and I try to stay active in my school’s ASA chapter. I hope to visit Armenia again to visit friends and continue to work towards a better future for our country. I think a huge way to make change is to offer service in the realm of education, whether fundraising to send money to an educational organization, donating time to teach English, or improving or building schools. These are all ideas I am interested in exploring with both my school’s ASA and on my own time!