MEMOIRS OF AN ORDINARY WOMAN: Is there a place you’ve visited that changed how you see the world?

Monday, October 6, 2025

Is there a place you’ve visited that changed how you see the world?

Bridget E Kelly

June 25

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Is there a place you’ve visited that changed how you see the world?

Maxwell Kofi Donkor

Costa Rica

Mia Hughes

I grew up in a bit of a bubble with everything revolving around my little town and my parish. So my first adventure started out with me going to college. It was in those years that I met, for the first time, someone who was divorced and then also went to school with people other than Catholics. It was eye opening.

I got my first teaching job working with new friends who were Jewish . So grateful for those friends. So I honestly didn’t have to travel far for my experiences to be life-changing at an early age.

Debbie Metzgar

Venezuela. I had never actually grasped the true meaning of extreme poverty and excessive wealth til I visited there. I was shocked at the utter disparity of the living conditions

Julie Victory

How about you?

Author

Bridget E Kelly

Julie Victory I went to Italy in 1973 and that overwhelmed me. In 1992, I went to Thailand and walked for five days in the hills and stayed with hill tribes and the elevated my world view. But when I went to India in 1994, I decided I will focus on only taking trips that kick me in the pants.

Suellen Sorenson

Bridget E Kelly, ah well, that explains it. You are courageous!

Suellen Sorenson

Visiting other places changed me into a citizen of the world. The USA is not the center of the universe.

Author

Bridget E Kelly

Julie, you never gave a response.

Jacki Budicker VanGorden

My German grandparents' house.

Jim Heller

In the Army in Germany for a year!!!!

Kathy Flatley Bandos

Dachau

Katie Uhler

My limited travels confine my perspective to only a few countries, but Costa Rica showed me how much a small, not-wealthy country can be self-sufficient, content and healthy with no $$$ spent on defense/offense and do well by focusing on valuing its natural resources and its people. A very positive learning experience.

Sandra Fisher

Uganda 1991

Sandra Fisher

Post Idi Amin.

Julie Monroe Shaw

Yes. As a teen I got to take six weeks and backpack the west with other high schoolers from my district. On the way to the Grand Canyon we stopped at a grocery store located on a reservation for the Navajo people.

First is was very apparent we were the minority in this space which was a frost for me at 16.

Second, seas in in line behind a mother and her children. I watched the process of using food stamps (1985) for the first time.

I felt ashamed of the stack of 20’s in my wallet and wanted so badly to help even the financial score.

Since then I have always been aware that privilege and disadvantage are everywhere and we must keep a kind and open heart for all people.

Thanks for the great question.

George Argiriou

Anyplace outside the continental US

Jennifer Anne

SAS!!!!! But one country - Vietnam

Author

Bridget E Kelly

Jennifer Anne SAS is beyond words. It can’t be described. It was India for me.

Jennifer Anne

Bridget E Kelly India was also a country I will never forget! But Vietnam jumped to the top for me last year. There was just something extra special about my second visit.