Traveling to a country other than your own can be a scary and exciting experience for many. Julia Post, a senior at Pennridge, was able to travel to the Netherlands to visit family for a couple weeks. Julia had to go to the airport and fly on her own, as well as traveling without any immediate family. Post had been to the Netherlands before but, never alone. Julia was able to give me the ups and downs of going on this adventure, as well as tips for anyone who would consider traveling alone.

The adventure took place in July of 2018, and Julia, along with her parents, had saved enough money for her to take the trip. Julia explained how hard it was to convince them to let her go by herself, “my mom was scared to let a fifteen year old girl fly by herself to Europe, it took many talks to convince her that I would be okay”. Although Julia told her mom she’d be okay, she definitely had her doubts. Traveling to another country by herself was an extremely hard thing to process but, knowing she had family on the other side kept her calm. 

All the convincing had finally paid off and the day came when Julia finally made the trip to Holland. I asked her about the day of the flight and what she experienced, Julia said, “I was super nervous about flying alone but, once I got to the airport it wasn’t as hard navigating as I initially thought.” Julia was the first passenger on the plane which played a part in relieving stress. Julia explained that the most stressful part was thinking about landing in the Netherlands and figuring out how to find her family. She was able to navigate through the airport using help from other passengers, Julia said, “one thing of advice is to not be afraid to ask others for help if you need it, I wouldn’t have known what to do if I hadn’t”. 

Leading up to Julia’s flight she was admittedly nervous. Steven Post, a freshman in college, had a different experience leading up to his first flight, which he also took by himself. Steven is from the Netherlands and he was taking his first trip to visit the United States. Steven was unfazed and said “I didn’t stress about the trip, I knew I was going to arrive safely”. Steven, whose first language is Dutch, has been learning English since a young age. This helped in Steven’s confidence of traveling by himself, he said “I could read all the signs in the airport, and I was able to talk to anyone which really helped me”. Steven explained how it was definitely an adventure but said it wasn’t something to stress about. Steven’s big point was if you stress about it too much you won’t have a great time and that being confident in thinking that everything will be okay will “make the experience that much better”.

Although both Julia and Steven had different experiences, they definitely knew it was going to be an adventure. Both their experiences gave me an input on what to expect if I ever go on an adventure like this on my own and I think it could be beneficial for anyone.