Growing up in the backwoods of Alaska I never got to leave the state until March of 2017 when I was 13 years old. One of the things that I remember the most was all the lights as we flew over Seattle that first time and I was totally in awe of the city. That first trip out of the state opened my eyes to how some of the other people in the United States lived, from the homeless in tents to the high-rise condominiums. Living in Alaska we get very stuck in a rut and that trip, and many others have shown me that there are so many more standards of living possible if you set your sights on some goals and work hard. My favorite time to travel is in the winter when we have a bunch of snow, and it is negative 40 outside. In about 10 hours you can be in Texas, warm temperatures, brown grass, no snow in sight, just the reddish bricks from all the buildings looking back at you. Texas has many people that speak Spanish, and it is always fun trying to figure out what is being said be the people around you. I have never taken a different language, but I know a few words of Spanish and I always enjoy learning a few more words so that hopefully one day I can speak to someone in Texas in Spanish. I love getting to experience unfamiliar places and things, which is one of the reasons why I will be going out of state this fall for college. I have never been out of the state for over two weeks at a time, so I am really looking forwards to this new experience. Being out of state for college will also make it so much easier for me to be able to visit different states as they are all so much closer to each other. NNU also has a great study abroad program that I would like to take part in one day. I have never been out of the country let alone lived out of the country. I think it would be a life-changing experience.