I've lived in one place for the past 5 1/2 years. Over 5 years!!! Previously, the longest I had stayed in one place was 4 years.

Coming from a military family, the lack of travel these past few years has been a royal pain. Sure, I enjoy having a close group of friends and the other comforts of living in a single home for an extended period of time. But it just seems wrong.

The only escapades I managed to take during the past five years were two trips to Canada, and that was to Quetico Park to canoe / camp / fish. Total isolation, just my father and myself, so it wasn't the travel experience I really yearned for. It was enjoyable; it just didn't involve the immersion into another culture.

Six years spent on Okinawa were the best six years of my life. Two separate three year tours, and there was nothing like it. Walking off base with some friends, going to "mama san" and "papa san" shops, getting some candy or a little toy, it was so safe that as a nine year old my mother wouldn't worry if I was gone for four hours.

Now I finally get to travel this summer, if only for two weeks. Euro trip! Four days in London, four days in Paris, four days in Rome, plus two inbetween travel days. Not quite what I'm used to as far as cultural immersion goes, but it's a shining light in the tunnel for me.

If I do indeed manage to get this Park Scholarship, then next year for Spring Break I'm going to go to London / Paris for a week with a good friend of mine who happens to go to college in England. This is all banking on getting the Park Scholarship. The crowning glory would be if I can go with my whole family and spend a couple weeks in Korea with my Korean family. I've been out of touch with them for so long, and the language barrier prevents me from talking to them on the phone.

If I get this Park Scholarship, I really am going to go crazy. I'm not going to touch about $50,000 of my college fund, save that, but the other $25,000 - $30,000 will be "touchable." Hopefully lots of travel in the near future. That and study abroad is covered by the Park Scholarship, so no extra fees if I choose to do that.