A electrifying and educational trip that I took the summer before my senior year of high school was to Heredia and Monteverde, Costa Rica where I lived for a month with host families and attended a spanish language school for five hours a day. Immersion is the only way to effectively learn a language and I had the best time with my host family and international friends that were also at the language school. Shoutout to my mother for forever installing my love a travel and sending me out in the world to independently explore, knowing that I would come back a better version of myself! What an amazing role model I have.