By ABBY HARRIS

Nineteen days. Forty-six teenagers. Five countries.

When the statistics are pulled and you realize exactly what you’ve done, you start to realize that you’ve spent entirely too much time with all of these people. It starts off great, new faces, learning everyone’s names and a new adventure every day. The high of traveling transfixes you for the longest time, the feeling of being independent from your parents sitting happily in your bones. Slowly but surely, the feeling starts to fade and you realize that you’re becoming homesick and that you would give anything to be asleep in your own bed. Taylor Swift has been played far too much and you realize that you now have the unprecedented ability to tell the difference between a good and a horrible bus (the line isn’t all that thin, honestly).

Then finally, finally, you’re at the airport to head home, saying tearful goodbyes to all of the wonderful people you’ve met on the trip with promises that this isn’t the end. On the way back home, you start to realize that you don’t want to go home, that you’d give anything for just one more day with the amazing people who have become your family in the amazing countries that you’ve just spent almost an entire month exploring. Another goodbye as you say adieu to the last of them, running towards your parents because you’re just so excited to see them again. You’re exhausted, most likely sleep-deprived (I hadn’t slept in 36 hours when I saw my mom the first time), and you’re craving some sort of greasy American food like you’ve never had it before.

In summary, the experience was like no other. Madeline Gammons, a girl I was traveling with, described it as “a jumpstart on her life-long dream of travel, and the best opportunity she could have had at a young age.”

Another student of the program, Aby McIntire, chose to give the quote that she felt she discovered on the trip: “Break the mold society created for you — explore and never give any opportunity up.”

Sadly, this is the last year the program will be running. People to People, after years of service in connecting the world’s youth, is shutting its doors. Knowing this now, I am honored to be one of the last groups to ever travel with the program. With all of my experiences and friendships gained, I recommend that everyone take the opportunity if given it. It’s unlike anything you’ll ever experience, and it gives you an insider’s look on daily life in a new country. Who knows? Maybe you’ll lose yourself like I did.