Kate Joyner

Hello, I’m Kate Joyner. This summer was my first time going out of the country.

In the past, my family solely traveled within the country. I have been to about 30 states, 6 national parks, and done lots and lots of road tripping. I had never left the country, and it was a big dream of mine to go on a trip with my friends after we graduated high school.

My parents thought it was stupid to send three 18-year-olds across the world with no supervision - which they were probably right about. However, after my friends and I had spent all of junior and senior year planning, we were going to make it happen.

After many group family meetings and begging, we came to a mutual consensus of my parents also being in Europe but not staying in the same location.

This photo of me is from this past summer when I was in Barcelona and held many parrots. The man who called us over said we could play with all these parrots for free. We had a blast as he put seeds on our hands and head and they swarmed us. Then, after they flew away from us, the man was begging us for tips and insisting we couldn't leave him without paying.

This moment is one I didn't tell my parents about. It would have proved their point of us being to naive to travel all alone. Everything was fine!