Panama OWW

OWW Description:

One World Week (OWW) is a two week immersion class in which students can opt. to do any of the given courses they are interested in. This year I chose to go to Panama.

Process:

After much fundraising to get to go, I got to the airport however they would not let me on the plane because of a law we had not been notified about. My passport expired 2 months from the departure date and Panama's government requires at least three months on your passport before it expires from the date you depart. Because of this I was unable to go on the trip to Panama.

Reflection:

From this experience I learned that sometimes thing's just don't go as planned and you have to accept that instead of grieving over it. I also learned how to renew your passport in a short amount of time.

There were many challenges I encountered while at the government building in Los Angeles after leaving LAX. I was not able to get a rush passport because I did not have the custody form stating that my dad had sole custody of me. I had a notarized form where this form had been checked off and signed off on, however the government officials would not accept this as proof of my father's sole custody of me. Being that my father was out of town I was unable to get him to bring this document down to the building and therefore not able to go to Panama.

If I could have changed this experience I would have double checked Panama's passport requirements long before the departure date so that I could have avoided this problem. However, having this experience has helped me to develop into the person that I am now. Without this horrible thing happening to me I would not be able to deal with bad things as well as I am able to deal with them now.