The Letter

It all started with the letter. One day I saw it in the mail and I knew immediately what it was. I had gotten one before, the year before last, but I was too young, besides these things were expensive. Let me explain. Did you ever hear about a program where students can actually go to a country to learn about it? Well, in this envelope was an invitation to do just that. It was through a group called People to People Ambassador Programs which has been taking delegations from all over the U.S to different countries on all seven continents. Sounds amazing right? The catch? Alright, alright, I'm getting to that. The thing is you have to pay for the trip. A big let down? Not really. Considering the trip and all the things you would get to do it actually is cheaper to go through this program, and you can get college credits for a little extra money. But back to the trip itself, the trip is to Italy, Austria, France, and Switzerland. So the first step after you get the letter is to sign up for an information meeting which we did. When my mom, my sister, and I get to the information meeting I'm not really as excitied as I guess I should have been, but I knew that even though I was at the meeting I still might not get to go on the trip. It all depended on the price and a bunch of other things. So the meeting tells about the trip, you hear from the leader of this delegation, P2P (People to People) alumni talk about what a good time they had, and it all sounds great until you realize that the price is like $7,000. Really quickly you start wondering, "How am I going to pay for this?" They tell stories about people that funded their entire trip even though they could not have paid for it otherwise and that they have a website for funding ideas. And then it is over and you can sign up that night and start the admissions process. We leave and go and get something to eat and when we get home my mom tells me I have to ask my dad if I can go. I ask him and then I sign up! I was already thinking about funding projects I could do, ways that I could raise money, but there was something I had to do before I would really know if I was going on the trip...