I had always had a very sheltered childhood. I was raised in a safe community that I still live in to this day, I went to a private high school and attend Church on Sunday as often as I can.

Almost everyone I know has a similar background to mine, we either went to the same school, lived in the same community or have the same economic background.

For most of my life, I have always believed that everyone had a similar life to mine, it was almost as if I lived in this fantasy world.

My eyes finally were able to open up and truly understand how foolish I had been when I went into my senior year of high school.

At the private high school I had attended, as a senior we are able to attend a retreat called Kairos. At Kairos I was grouped with girls who I was familiar with since they were in my class but had never connected with them on a much deeper level. The purpose of Kairos is to form an understanding of one's relationship with God, discover oneself and build a bond with your classmates.

At this retreat I began to appreciate the fact that people think differently and go through different experiences than I do, making life so much more diverse than my own.

I realized that there is an entire world of people out there who go through both amazing and traumatic experiences that connect us all on a different level than I had originally thought. All I kept thinking was how unfortunate it would have been for me to not have finally understood what the world around me has to offer.

Why do we choose to live in bubbles? Why do we choose to be satisfied with mediocrity? Do we even realize this is happening?

I have learned that people are afraid of change. They are afraid of what they might discover when they finally break out of their bubbles and grasp reality. But it is this grasping of reality that helps push ourselves to live a life worth living.

I have accepted the fact that I may be wrong in most of what I believe or that I might actually be correct. Maybe there is a whole other side of me just waiting to come out and fulfill a destiny I new could have imagined was made for me. It is my job to go out into the world and find out for myself. I cannot continue to live in this fantasy world because I will never learn anything about myself or the people around me.