Don’t get me wrong, all the sights that Paris had to offer were amazing and I still can’t believe that I got to see them in person, but the people that I traveled with were my favorite part of the trip.

For spring break, I had the incredible opportunity to take a trip to Paris, France with a group of eleven other students and three professors. I didn’t know how important these people would become to me or how much I would grow to appreciate them and realize that they were what made the trip as great as it was; not the sights or the city itself. The group and I were in Paris for seven full days and everyday was full of sight-seeing and experiencing everything that we could while in the city, but with every breathtaking building there was a joke or moment that made me appreciate the people more.

While I know that that is, most likely, the only time that I will ever get to experience Paris in person, I know that my experience would not have been what it was without the group that I was with. I barely knew most of the group when we left and now I feel like I can call all of them my close friends. From every inside joke, like Happy Turtle Dust, to every beautiful moment of witnessing individual members of the group be astounded by the city, like with multiple members crying seeing the Eiffel Tower firsthand, I realized that there was no group I would rather experience this city with.

There was a day, when we were visiting the Palace of Versailles, that I truly realized the extent of how much every member of the group meant to me and, being the peculiar friend that I am, I decided to take candid photos of as many people in the group as I possibly could. I filled my camera roll with pictures of my friends enjoying themselves instead of pictures of the Palace of Versailles that I may never see in person again. This day of capturing people on camera of beautiful people in a beautiful city was one of my favorite occurrences of the entire trip.

I had the time of my life visiting Paris, France. I enjoyed the sights, sounds, food, and culture, but, most of all, I enjoyed spending time in a wonderful city for the first time with the amazing group of people that I did. I will never forget the trip or the people who made it so memorable. I hope that I had even close to such an impact on them that they all had on me. Thank you all for a wonderful trip.