Departure Day!

The 2026 trip to Spain starts today and, as always, everyone feels both nervous and excited -- "nerv-cited" as an AHI junior described it earlier this year in part of her short story about the feeling of being backstage before a theater performance:

"The show is Mamma Mia. The dressing room is a sea of vividly colored dresses and wavy hair stiff with hairspray. In fact, the whole room smells like hairspray. I have been in many shows, but that never takes away the combination of thrill and dread I feel as the time of the performance inches closer and closer." 

Switch the hairspray and backstage for a sweaty ride to the airport, and I easily recognize myself in this story. I have been on many trips - as a student, by myself, with my family, and with students - but that never takes away the thrill and dread I feel as I close the front door on any chance to grab that one last thing I might have forgotten.

There is something terrifyingly wonderful about this feeling. It comes when we are doing something challenging, something that pushes us outside our comfort zone, toward experiences that are new and inherently unpredictable. 

It is precisely because travel is challenging and full of uncertainty that it can be so powerful. We must be uncomfortable to practice resilience. We cannot discover what is already familiar. We must encounter other cultures to understand the peculiarities of our own. The value of these experiences may not reveal itself today or tomorrow, but rather in the gradual reshaping of our experience of our place in the world and our role in shaping its future.

We look forward to sharing discoveries and reflections throughout our trip, and we encourage you to follow along on Instagram. Spain, here we come!