The catalog arrived in our mailbox when I was 16 – pages filled with teenagers exploring jungles, building schools, and connecting with communities across the globe. As I flipped through those glossy images from my home in Lufkin, Texas, something inside me sparked to life… a desire to travel.
My family couldn’t afford vacations, let alone international travel. We rarely ventured beyond our county lines. But those service trips called to something deeper in me than just wanderlust. They promised something I couldn’t name yet – growth, purpose, connection.
So I started fundraising. Babysitting, odd jobs, letters to relatives – whatever it took. When I finally raised enough money, I found myself boarding a plane alone for the first time, passport clutched tightly, equal parts terrified and exhilarated.
For several summers during my teenage years, I participated in these service trips. First to a native reservation in Canada: Deer Lake, Ontario. The second to Palawan in the Philippines. I was convinced I was making a significant difference in the world – and hopefully I was – but looking back, I realized the more profound transformation was happening within me.
The Real Education Begins
These trips pushed me outside every comfort zone I had known. For the first time, I wasn’t having my parents take care of me 24 hours a day. I had to navigate unfamiliar airports, communicate through language barriers, and adapt to cultures with entirely different norms than my own.
I joined groups of teenagers from across the country, forming fast friendships through shared experiences that tested and stretched us. Together we laughed, struggled, sweated through construction projects, and sat in wonder under stars that somehow looked different than they did back home.
The growth that happens when a young person leaves their small corner of the world is remarkable. I saw poverty I couldn’t have imagined and joy that transcended circumstance. I witnessed ways of living that challenged everything I had assumed was “normal.” My worldview expanded with every conversation, every meal shared, every night spent in a place utterly unlike my hometown.
Becoming a Citizen of the World
Before these trips, my identity was firmly rooted in my small Texas community. Afterward, I began to understand what it meant to be a citizen of the entire world rather than just one small place.
Travel gives you something impossible to gain any other way: the ability to see through others’ perspectives. It develops empathy not as an abstract concept but as a lived experience. When you’ve broken bread with families whose lives look nothing like yours, when you’ve worked alongside local teenagers toward common goals, you can never again reduce other cultures to simple stereotypes.
This kind of perspective-taking is even more crucial for today’s teenagers. In an era where algorithms serve them increasingly narrow slices of reality, the ability to genuinely understand different viewpoints becomes not just a personal virtue but a societal necessity.
Why I Created Teen Connect Adventures
The service trips I took as a teenager shaped who I am today in profound ways. They’re why I created Teen Connect Adventures in Mexico. I wanted to give today’s teens the same opportunities that changed my life – to disconnect from the digital world, connect with different cultures, challenge themselves, and discover who they are beyond the boundaries of their everyday lives.
Our adventure camps are designed around the principles I found so transformative in my own youth:
- Genuine cultural immersion rather than tourist experiences
- Meaningful challenges that build confidence and resilience
- Community service that creates connection with local communities
- Group experiences that foster deep friendships
- Technology-free environments that encourage presence
I see the same transformation in our teen participants that I experienced myself decades ago. They arrive often hesitant, sometimes glued to their devices, uncertain about stepping into the unknown. They leave standing taller, making eye contact, laughing more freely, and most importantly – knowing themselves better.
A Gift That Lasts a Lifetime
The insights gained from international travel and service during the teenage years don’t fade with time. The perspective shifts, the confidence gained, the friendships formed – these become foundational elements of who we become as adults.
I truly believe that the trips I took as a teenager shaped who I am today in ways I’m still discovering. They gave me empathy, adaptability, confidence, and a sense of my place in the world that continues to guide my decisions decades later.
This is the gift I want to give to every teenager who joins our adventures – not just an amazing experience, but a foundation for becoming the person they’re meant to be.
Because the world needs more young people who can see beyond boundaries, who understand different perspectives, and who know they’re capable of more than they ever imagined.