What is a parent’s biggest fear when sending their child off to school or on a trip? Most would say having the kid getting hurt or sick and being too far away to help. Well my parents had to live through that.

They were having a casual Thursday night watching Game of Thrones on the couch when suddenly my mom’s phone started ringing. When she picked it up she was greeted by me sobbing so hard I was barely able to speak. I kept repeating “I hurt my knee” and “I can’t walk”. Of course, they went into a panic. I was 3,600 miles away from them and claimed to be seriously injured. A parent’s worst nightmare.

Ever since I was a little kid, I had always wanted to travel around the world. In high school, I had the opportunity to go on a trip during spring break to Costa Rica. I was extremely excited and thought that this was something I could not pass up. As my first time abroad in a Spanish-speaking country was wrapping up, I knew I wanted more. I had indeed gotten the travel bug, and I knew for sure that my next stop abroad would be Spain.

Fast forward to Summer 2022, and my dream was finally coming true. during the Spring semester I attended an information session for the UMass Salamanca Summer Program and knew that this was the program for me. Originally when I was searching for an abroad program to do for my Spanish major, I wanted to do a program that was not too long, and if I ended up enjoying it, I would potentially do another program for a longer duration, like a semester long program. Since the Salamanca program is only 1 month, it was an ideal choice for me and what I wanted at the time.

Going into UMass as a freshman, I saw myself taking a semester abroad at some point; hopefully in Central or South America. I saw myself doing a lot of things actually… then Covid. My Sophomore year was remote, and the summer before going back to campus as a junior was when I finally had the chance to study abroad. I chose to go to Salamanca because the program was brief and I wouldn’t miss an entire semester at UMass. This would be my first time traveling since the lockdown began.