During my sophomore year, I remember sitting in English class listening to my teacher as she brought up the idea of an international trip to Greece and Italy. I never believed that it would really happen, but sure enough, I was given the opportunity to travel abroad to Europe with a group of my teachers and peers. After going to a meeting to discuss cost, itinerary and much more, I had my heart set on signing up, so I quickly took advantage of this chance. My mom and I talked about it the weekend after the meeting and, after weighing our options, signed me up. Come to find out, my parents were eligible to join me and the rest of the group, so my mom jumped at the chance to sign up with me, and it turned out to be a trip that would give me many great new experiences and memories overall, teaching me all the more to enjoy the moments, especially when we’re not guaranteed to get them back.
Normally, teenagers would probably be annoyed when they find out that a parent is going on a trip with them and the rest of their peers, but I was greatly excited. Although my mom and I have had our rough patches, she is and continues to be not only my mom but one of my best friends. I know I can go to my mom with a lot of things, and I’ll always get a listening ear; the majority of the time, I also get a word of advice, even if I don’t want it. I also know that, in life, if I feel alone and like I have no one, I’ll always have my mom. This was the main reason I was so excited for my mom to be able to travel with me on this trip, along with the fact that one of my favorite school trips I had ever been on up until this point was my kindergarten field trip to Memorial Stadium—a field trip my mom attended with me.
Because of how close we are, my mom and I were ecstatic that we were given such a big, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As the trip neared closer, with the leave date being a week after my junior year ended, it put some stress on my mom and me, but our excitement didn’t waver. We went to different places, mostly TJ Maxx, to look for certain things we needed that would have cute and cheaper options. My mom and I have always loved going shopping together, so we just had another excuse to shop and add to our upcoming trip. As the trip came closer, my mom and I packed anything we thought we could need, and we were off with the rest of our group, which consisted of 24 people, including the two of us.
Flashing forward to the actual trip, we started in Greece, where I spent the majority of the time with my peers, going to the beach and shopping and walking around different sights with them. I spent very little time with my mom in comparison to my peers, but since most of our hotel rooms were European style—meaning small—I did spend some time with my mom as we got ready for dinner or bed most nights although we didn’t share a room. I was mostly paired with two or three of my other peers for our rooms, so I quickly took advantage of my mom having her own room as an adult traveler, and it also gave us more time to spend time together.
As we traveled to Italy, though, my mom and I spent a lot of time together, which helped us bond even more. I was greatly excited for the entire trip, but my favorite part, without a doubt, was the time in Italy, especially the time I spent with my mom.
In Italy, my mom and I spent the majority of our time together in Rome, which gave me one of my favorite memories from the entire trip. As a group, we visited the Trevi Fountain, where we all tossed our three coins over our shoulders and into the fountain. Afterwards, we had free time, which my mom and I spent walking around to different shops and hanging out. We decided to go back to the Trevi Fountain as my mom knew that there was a 24-hour livestream of the fountain. For about five minutes, we stood among the surplus of people and looked at the livestream on my mom’s phone, playing our own version of Where’s Waldo to find ourselves, and nothing could beat our excitement when we finally did.
Another thing my mom and I did a lot of in Rome was shopping. As I said before, something we both enjoy doing together is going shopping. Firstly, it was interesting to see all the different items sold in the many different stores throughout the large cities we went to. I specifically remember a few of the stores we went to in Rome during our free time and what they entailed. Many included usual souvenirs—magnets, mugs, T-shirts, etc.—while other places had an inventory of religious and not-so-appropriate items. For myself, I enjoyed looking for different T-shirts while my mom was set on getting a Christmas ornament, which is something she gets almost anytime we travel anywhere. I’ve always enjoyed shopping with my mom, but doing so in a different country with many cool and cheaper items brought my enjoyment to a whole new level.
Truthfully, as I look back on the trip, I regret not spending more of it with my mom. I spent a lot of time with my peers, which I do feel was influential as it gave me more time around them outside of school; however, that doesn’t take away from me having not spent enough time with my mom as the chances of the two of us going overseas together was slimmer than me going with just my peers. The most comfortable I felt on the trip was when I was with my mom, especially while she helped me as I was going through a tough time.
Looking back on the trip as a whole, there isn’t a lot I would change as I had a blast overall. However, if there was anything I could have done differently, it would have been the amount of time and things I did with my mom. When I spent time with my mom, from getting food together to walking around shops to finding ourselves on a livestream, I had a lot of fun and got new experiences that brought us closer. For this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I couldn’t have been happier my mom was able to tag along.
