The majority of April I spent traveling around Europe. It was crazy how it worked out, but my school ended up having nearly three weeks of spring break. I spent 17 days of that traveling.

Exhausting is a word some may use to describe this, and it was — seven cities in 17 days. I was constantly on the go, but when I remember this trip, I don’t think of the sleepless nights. I think of the countless adventures, the stomach-aching laughs and the amazing people I met. It truly was a whirlwind, but when I think back to the days I spent getting on planes, checking into hostels (or tents!) and the endless site seeing I can’t help but smile with all the memories flooding back.

I will never forget any of it; even the bad parts — the sleeping the airports, the layovers, the rainy days and the freezing days. All of that together is what makes the travels. Not every second was perfect, but I can look back and laugh about the small misfortunes.

The people you spend your time with while traveling are partly what make your trip amazing. It’s who you pass your time with, who you converse with, who you go out with. My travel companions were the wonderful people I’ve met in Alicante. We went to all seven cities together. I owe a million thanks to these people. We kept each other going, and learned to work together.

Traveling can be very stressful, and when you’re with the same people for 17 days, you can get a little annoyed with each other. But these are the people I will share the little memories with the rest of my life. They will be the only people who understand the certain insanity that drove us from day-to-day. I will always be bonded to these people in ways others will never understand.

I also made it a point to meet others in every city. The more people I met, the more inspired I was. Everyone had their own story. Everyone was at the different point in their life, but something brought them to a particular city. Learning about that was one of my favorite things about meeting a person. We could be completely different, but when we met, we automatically had common ground.

That’s the thing — travelers all have some common trait. I can’t put my finger on one thing, but I can say that there is a common curiosity and thirst to learn — about the world, about others, about a certain culture. There is some wall that people traveling take down that makes it easier to get to know someone.

It was one of the longest trips I’ve taken in my life, and I feel like as much as I took little pieces of every city with me, I left little parts of myself in every city and with the people I met. The trip changed me, as one can imagine. I learned about the world and, in turn, I learned about my place in the world. I learned to interact with people and how to respect the world.

The people I met and the places I visited showed me how large and yet how small the world is. If you choose to be afraid to truly live, the world can be the cruel place you make it out to be. On the other hand, if you choose to dive into the world, you’ll realize that you’ll always float. Your life is meant to be an amazing adventure and nothing short of that.