Without the help of a scholarship from SPC or my loving family, I would have never dreamed of traveling to Greece at this point in my life. Grateful and overwhelmed, I don’t know how to start preparing for an adventure of a lifetime.
Today’s date reads April 24th, 2014. That means there are exactly two weeks until I am thousands of feet in the air over the Atlantic Ocean. Let’s keep in mind that I have not left my home state of Florida in so long that you may as well say that I haven’t stepped foot outside the comfortable bubble of palm trees and orange groves at all.
How does someone like me even get ready for something like this? I love learning about my heritage. I took Introduction to Greek Culture with Professor Felos and enjoyed every minute of the information that was presented to me. We covered stories of mythology, art, architecture, wars, the triumphs of Alexander The Great, and more. The passion I have for learning about Ancient Greece is so important to me that I’m considering making it the main focus of my academic life.
So I must repeat the question- how do I even begin to travel to the land that started it all?
Our trip includes visiting the island of Kalymnos. It is a sister city to my home, Tarpon Springs. The mountainous island is known for its sponge industry and Easter festivities, and lies in the southeastern part of the Aegean Sea. In fact, my mother’s side of the family originated from Kalymnos. What better way to trace back the roots to my ancestors than to walk on the soil in which they lived? What better way to experience family history than to walk the streets that my mother and her siblings did when they were children?
Our other destinations include Athens, Delphi, and Mycenae. The excitement of being in these places that I saw so much in text books and Powerpoint presentations is immeasurable and goose bump inducing.
I guess a start to preparing is to pack my bags with the essentials: my passport, a few outfits, SD cards for my cameras, a bathing suit, toiletries, and my trusty pair of adventure boots. The rest won’t matter. It’ll all fly out the window once I set my eyes on the sign in the airport that will read,
“Welcome to Greece!”
What a beautiful story you wrote, Maria! I am so very proud of you. The trip to Greece is going to be wonderful, and it will change all of our lives for the better. Kalymnos is the Greek island famous for hospitality. Sharing with them is a gift. See you soon for your first airplane ride, Professor Felos