While in Europe, I consulted with professors, students, government officials, and everyday people in an attempt to grasp the ramifications of the sweeping democratic change going on in that part of the world. Along with 20 schoolmates, I witnessed the monumental and historic changes taking place. As entire governments had fallen overnight, the people of this region picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and began a process of transition across their entire society.
I spent time in the monuments and castles of Budapest, and cruised the Danube to Vienna. I saw ancient Roman ruins, testament to those who had come before me. I saw the bullet-pocked walls of the old city, where a World War had left its mark but most of a city standing. Budapest and the surrounding countryside were filled with a history hundreds of years older than mine at home, and this gave me a unique perspective as I began my later study of politics.
I also saw the people whom the transition had left behind. Much of Romania still lay in poverty and desolation, a direct result of its communist rule. I encountered two types of people there; those who still held out some hope for their country, and those who would be quick to leave it if only the opportunity presented itself. I visited a United Nations refugee camp, stocked full of people from all over the globe who, for one reason or another, could no longer go home.
It was this trip that first exposed me to the world outside of our borders, and made me yearn to make positive change the world over. As a result, I became much less centered on my own personal loss or gain. While deeply moving and historically significant, it was much more important to me as a catalyst for my own change.
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