advice ill never forget

I feel as though I've grown leaps and bounds within the past few months of traveling.  Not that I've magically transformed into a mature adult or my personality has been altered...its the way i think and see things that have changed.  You always hear people saying "i want to travel the world and find myself." I guess that statement is accurate but its so much more than that. I believe that I "found myself" these past 3 months by not thinking about myself.

I learned a great deal of valuable life lessons while backpacking Europe and i already attempted to post about it in a previous post so this one about my "lessons learned" while on study abroad in the south pacific. 

one the first day of our trip, our instructor was briefing us on the trip, his expectations, yadayadayada...until he wrapped it up with something i needed to hear, something that kinda shook me.  Dr. T, the wise man he is, said something along the lines of, "this trip isnt about you.  sure you paid 8 grand to be here but this isnt about you.  God wont care what you checked off your bucket list but he will care how you effected the people and influenced others while on your journey to check things off.  so, this trip is about others, not you.  serve your fellow friends on the trip, serve the people you meet, be someone who will be remembered...and then you will find yourself more changed than you could have ever imagined." 

This study abroad has been on my "bucket list" for 4 years, since sophomore year in high school! That advice spoke right to me. I believed what he said and sure i was in those efforts already this summer but to have it put into words so perfectly struck me. so, i was to try, day in and day out, my hardest to put aside my needs and look for the needs in others.

With this mentality, my days were the happiest & i genuinely grew to love the people i was associating with.  This allowed me to see people with the kind of love that God does and see them as my heavenly brothers and sisters.  I totally believe that the people I traveled with and the people we met along the way are my brothers and sisters and we all have a Father in Heaven who has created a perfect plan for all His children to return to him one day.  The villagers in Fiji, the Maori people in New Zealand and the aboriginals in Australia, we will meet again.  These people were a tangible example to me of living a Christlike life.  I feel like I was blessed with a small sense of our Savior's love for them by serving them.  Their loud laughter, humility and faith they abundantly possessed have made me sure of a few things: people are innately good, the Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter day Saints is the only gospel on the face of the universe that is 100% correct in every little way and that selflessness is the key to happiness.