The summer between freshman and sophomore year of high school, my school's social studies department was putting on a service trip to Thailand. I immediately thought,”This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I have to go.”

 My parents said I could go on one condition: I had to help pay for it. I saved up for weeks‒birthday money, holiday money, job money‒ everything went towards the trip. When it came down to it, I had saved enough money for my parents to let me go. 

On the day we left, I was filled with emotions. What if I don't know anyone? What if no one sits by me? What if I regret going? As I stepped onto the bus, all my emotions told me to turn around, but I didn't.

When we arrived at the airport, we had a series of three long flights ahead. As I settled into my seat and slowly drifted off to sleep, I thought about all the people I would meet, the meals I would eat, and people I would help. When I woke up, we had finally made it to the hotel in Chiang Mai.

        The next morning,  we jumped on a bus bright and early and headed off toward the northern rural areas. After a long ride, we arrived at Warm Heart, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young children that lived in the mountains near Chiang Mai. They helped clothe them, feed them, and give them an education. After a brief tour of the compound, we moved on to our project. Our task was to help build the kids a new school house. In the past years, Thailand has had severe styrofoam littering issues because they didn't have a way to dispose of it. The school that we built was made of styrofoam bricks so this helped use up the litter. We would crush up the styrofoam into small chunks and then mix it with concrete and pour it into a brick mold. Then using mortar, we created the walls and a roof. These styrofoam bricks were  energy efficient, and great insulators of heat, allowing the buildings to hold in cold air very well‒important in Thailand 

           At the end of each day, we had an opportunity to play with and talk to some of the kids that went to school there. We played soccer and hopscotch for hours. Getting to know some of these kids and their stories made me feel extremely fortunate for what I had.

          Chet stood out the most to me. He was 12 years old and he lived with his mom and sister. Before he came to Warm Heart, he had to walk three miles one way to get to school. I remember thinking to myself that my school was only ten minutes from my house . He told me that everyday he was excited to learn something new and that his favorite subject was math. I could only help but think about how much I’d taken school for granted and how nice my school is. It was an eye opening conversation. I realized how lucky I was. Here I was in a foreign country surrounded by kids who had to walk miles just for simple things like school, water and food. 

       After all my unique experiences on the trip, I promised myself that I would stop complaining when I'm having a tough day. This trip changed my life; it helped me realize how blessed I was to live in the United States and to have all the amenities that I have. All the people I met had much worse situations than I did, but everyday they woke up, walked to school and managed to have a great day. Since that trip, I have tried to have a positive outlook on life and in everything I do. And, I'm glad I raised enough money.