by Serena Arness ’16

People go on vacations for many reasons. A common goal of many vacations involves reconnecting with family and creating memorable experiences with one another as reminders of what is really important in life. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter where a person goes as long as it is with family. Vacation, however, can provide even more special opportunities for students with relatives living overseas to reconnect with their ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well as family.

Traveling is a wonderful and exciting chance to get completely out of your normal surroundings, see how people in other parts of the world live, and become exposed to other sights, languages and history. Junior Sofia Taramona got this experience when she recently traveled to her father’s birthplace in Lima, Peru to celebrate her great-grandmother’s hundredth birthday. She had been there before, but not for about seven years. She was able to stay with her uncle, cousins and her great-grandmother, which allowed her to catch up with family and their history, get re-introduced to their South American lifestyle and see the local sights. “I like to experience it and live the way they do,” Taramona said.

Junior Melissa Zamora has family from Bogota, Colombia whom she had not seen for seven years. Her family here in Maryland took a recent vacation there to attend a cousin’s wedding. It allowed her to see her aunt and cousins and renewed her appreciation for how friendly and helpful the neighbors are within the community in that culture. “People just seemed closer to one another there,” said Zamora.

Junior Anuraag Mallela went to India for one month with members of his church and family on a mission trip to provide clothes and food to the less fortunate. While in India, he was able to stay with other family that he had not seen in nine years. What he saw there ran from extreme poverty and overcrowding to the luxury of the famed Taj Mahal. In one trip, he helped those less fortunate than himself, witnessed firsthand some of the most amazing sights on earth and reconnected with extended family members and his Indian heritage.

“It’s worth it to go to other countries rather than the beach because you can go to the beach anytime, but you don’t always get the opportunity to visit another country, ” explained Mallela. Students who have the opportunity to go on an extended trip to another country might have to catch up with their friends when they get back, but the many benefits of traveling to visit family living in the students’ own ethnic country of origin is just hard to beat. For Taromona, Zamora and Mallela, the memories, connections and experiences will remain with them forever.