When our daughter, Emily, brought home the information on going to Australia, our immediate response was “You are eleven years old and you want to go to Australia---without us…..Reality check!”  However, we agreed to go to the introductory People-to-People meeting, just to get a little more information.  Then we could officially say “no” and have made the effort.

 

Surprisingly, we were intrigued.  The children in the program get so many opportunities that we, as a family, might not get if we planned a family vacation.  And she would get the advantage of experienced, well-trained chaperones to ensure her safety and provide her the most rewarding trip possible.   At the end of the meeting, we agreed with Emily that we would pursue this opportunity further, but we still had major reservations.  She was eleven years old, in 6^th grade.  How could we let her go thousands of miles away from, beyond our ability to reach her easily?  What if she got hurt?  What if she got sick?  How come she gets to hold a Koala bear before us?  We were definitely much more worried than she was, and needed more information.

 

We visited the P2P website and read everything we could get our hands and eyes on.  We spoke to one of her teachers that had served as a chaperone with P2P.  All of this research helped set our minds to rest that she would be well taken care of.  From experience, we knew that Emily was very comfortable being away from us for extended periods—she had been to camp several years in a row for as many as nine days.  Yes, this trip was going to be sixteen days, but we were pretty sure she could handle it.  And then we looked at the cost….

 

Wow, it was not cheap, though the cost was very good for everything that was included.  However, we just couldn’t see how we could afford it, and frankly, we didn’t want to hand our daughter several thousand dollars for a trip and say “Have a good time!”  So we decided that if she wanted this badly enough, she was going to help.   After discussions with her, we agreed that if she came up with one half, we would pay the other.  And by golly, through amazing effort on her part (oh don’t let yourself off the hook—we worked right along side her!!!) she earned her half of the cost PLUS all of her spending money.

 

Did she get homesick?  Yes—and a phone call in the middle of the night helped alleviate some of that.   Plus we sent her a few faxes, which worked out very well!    Did we get child-sick?  Definitely yes—mom was close to a basket case until we got the call that the group had arrived safely in New Zealand.   It was much less stressful during her flight home.  The bottom line is that we all survived, though it had its difficult moments. 

 

The trip turned out to be everything we could have hoped for.  She made friends that she still stays in contact with.  She had the experience of a lifetime.  She learned how to set goals and achieve them.  We could not be more proud of her, and we are so pleased that P2P offers such a great program.  We are already looking at her next potential trip.