This post features student writing.

The past few weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. No longer are we friends, but we are a family. The past month has been flooded with laughter, hard work, challenges, and lots and lots of fun.

All of that has led to the last few days, which we spent together in Ha Long Bay. We took a three-hour bus ride from our host village to the beautiful bay. The bus ride was a little hard on all of us since we have just said goodbye to the friends we made in our host village and what we called home for the past month.

The three days we spent cruising around the bay was a perfect way to end this program. We were able to explore caves with crystals hanging from the ceilings, swim on beaches with turquoise water, and kayak around the mini mountains. The last night on the boat everyone gathered together and we sang songs, danced, and cried. Yes, we cried, despite there being three more days we would spend together. The bonds we’ve made on this trip have become so strong that we are a part of each other. When we go back home, we won’t have the same group of faces to wake up to. These faces are of people who we’ve gotten to know deeply for the past month and share countless memories with. The hardest part about saying goodbye is thinking of the possibility that we’ll never see each other again and the trip will fade into a distant memory. But we’ve become so important to each other that if there’s a will, there’s a way. Ha Long Bay might be the end of our trip together, but it won’t be the end of our journey.

— Michaela C.