I Never Thought I’d Do This: 50 Teens, One Bus, and Barcelona
Photo by Howei Wang on Unsplash If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be travelling by bus across Europe with 50 Czech teenagers, I would have laughed. Or cried. Or both. At my school, teachers were invited every year to create and propose student trips. It wasn’t my first year there — actually, it was my fourth (or third, if you skip the Covid year) — so I decided to give it a try. I asked a couple of colleagues I really get along with to join me, and weeks later, we handed our proposal to the principal. Destination: Barcelona. I truly believe you are never fully prepared. You try, you mess it up or learn, and then you try again. That was me. I wasn’t prepared to take almost 50 teenagers by bus to Spain. But from the beginning, I knew I wasn’t doing this alone. My team — Martin, Maxwell, and me — wasn’t just a team. We were also friends, and soon-to-be travel buddies. The travel agency was picked, the trip was approved, and the response from students exceeded expectations — our bus...