April's A-Ha! Travel Moments ~ Casady Monroe

As our plane descended into Charles de Gaulle airport, panic set in. I had studied French daily for the past three years, and in my Oklahoma City middle school classroom, I was a whiz. Yet here, with a bird's eye view of Paris growing larger and larger, and my parents and sister eagerly awaiting me to wow them with my interpretation skills, I panicked. The flight attendant's voice sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher wah-wah-wahing, and the words became indistinguishable. I noticed, perhaps for the first time, how quick and fluid the French language was, the words melting into each other.



Despite the anxiety of this moment, it is a scenario I keep at the forefront of my memory banks, and it remains a big motivation for my travels. No matter how much I think I know about a language or a culture, my lack of preparation and the sheer difference between expectation and reality only becomes apparent once I touch-down in the country. Speaking the local language in my slow, halting, twangy accent takes guts, but being in-country is a more in-depth learning experience than I can get anywhere else. Throughout my travels, I've found I can survive anywhere--whether butchering the pronunciation of a town when ordering train tickets or blindly pointing to a menu item written in an alphabet I can't decipher. I know that getting out of my comfort zone has given me way more confidence to move through life, and I'm so thankful that kindness and desire to help others are universal principles.

Casady Monroe
Cultural Embrace International Programs Coordinator