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Many things over my life have sparked periods of personal growth, but one in particular stands out. Starting in December 2011, I started tagging along with my dad on his international business trips. My dad is an economist whose focus is food insecurity, so in addition to the typical places people visit, he also travels to more impoverished areas. On my first trip with him in 2011 we went to India, specifically Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Bangalore. Going to the other side of the world in a place so foreign at age 11 was definitely the biggest culture shock of my life. The cities were much more crowded and busy than any U.S. city I’d been in and poverty was more visible than here in the states. The traffic was a whole other story, with seemingly no order and a constant blaring of horns. But what made this trip especially meaningful was getting to see my dad do his work. Because I was just 11 years old, I had to stay with him at all times (besides once while he was in a meeting and I went off with a stranger for a ride on his motorcycle which, looking back, probably wasn’t the greatest idea but was fun!) so I got to see my dad do the work he’d traveled to India to do. In all six cities, I watched him give presentations in conferences on food insecurity and how it can be addressed in developing countries. By attending these conferences, I got an in-depth understanding of my father’s work. We also visited local soybean farmers and learned about their operations, all while seeing wild monkeys and baboons running around with no one batting an eye. With a better understanding of my dad’s research, the trips to other countries became much more interesting. Since the 2011 trip to India, we’ve gone to Vietnam, South Africa (twice), Greece, Italy, Netherlands, England, and Canada. None of these countries is the same (and even with the two trips to South Africa we visited separate places and got to see different sides of the country) so I was immersed in unique cultures and began to see how they relate to the U.S. in their own distinct ways. I was exposed to places on the extreme side of the poverty spectrum, such as Vietnam and South Africa, and others on the opposite side, such as the Netherlands, England, and Canada. My father’s presentations on food insecurity in each country gave me valuable insight into the contrasting levels of poverty around the world. For the developing countries, my dad’s research focused on agricultural efficiencies and food distribution, while for the more developed countries, he discussed the role of government programs such as food assistance and measurement of the poverty line. Before these trips, I had no real idea of what my parents actually did for work. All I knew was that they’d leave the house at 8, do whatever typical adults do, and then return at 6; the specifics were a mystery to me. After watching my dad present complex statistics and cohesive arguments so many times, I had a much better idea of what he did. That first experience of watching my father do his work in depth had a big impression on me and inspired me to learn more. I credit these trips and experiences, along with countless nights of talking with my dad about economics and its relation to other topics, with my decision to study economics and math in college. I’m very grateful for having had the opportunity to travel with him, as not many people are lucky enough to do so. It has given me a good understanding of what I want to study and focus on in college, and also some knowledge of the struggles faced by many people in countries thousands of miles away.