From the Bronx to the Holy Land

Having grown up in the Bronx my whole life I would have never expected to be travelling  internationally especially not to the Holy Land. When the idea was proposed to me I don't  know why but I answered "yes" immediately without a hesitation. Somehow I knew that this  was what I wanted. Every site we have visited from the Sea of Galilee to the Jordan River  down to the Dead Sea have all been breathtaking. Standing in Nazareth and seeing the ruins  of the temples just left me with a sense of amazement. As I am experiencing these first few  days of my trip I find myself looking around just letting the moment sink in. There are many  times when I catch myself telling everyone around "I can't believe we're actually here". By  visiting all of these sites and embarking on this journey I feel that many think things have  been put into perspective. For example, growing up I attended a Catholic school and did  all of my sacraments. As a child I would have hear all of these stories about these foreign  places called Jerusalem, Israel, and Dead Sea just to name a few. However, I would always just  hear the stories and never thought about where these places were or what they look like. I  remember always thinking that these places were just deserts. And these past few days I was definitely  proven wrong. Going to these places and experiencing stepping into the Mediterranean and floating  in the Dead Sea,  getting water from the Jordan river allowed me to connect and see how much more  real these places are. This experience of visiting Holy sites have allowed me to see everything in  different perspectives and to think outside of the world that I live in and start seeing what is out there. Love, Maxiel