If I had to pick one photo that captures my time in Morocco it would be this one: me and my host mom at the farewell party at the CCCL. She is genuinely one of the best parts of this whole trip. She is the kind of person that makes you feel lucky to have met them. From the very first day she made everything feel less foreign and more like home. She cooked for us, checked in on us, and had this warmth about her that made you feel like you had known her for years. My host brother and sister were a big part of that too. They made the house feel alive and having them around made everything feel more natural, like I was actually part of the family and not just a guest passing through. At the farewell party my host mom was exactly who she always is, the life of the room, laughing, talking, making everyone around her feel good. This photo is not just a memory of a party. It is a memory of what it actually felt like to live here, even if only for a little while.

Personally this trip showed me that I can handle more than I thought. Moving into a stranger’s home in a country I had never been to and actually feeling like I belonged after a few days was not something I was sure would happen. I also figured out that I connect with people pretty easily, whether it was my host family, the Moroccan students we worked with, or the women at the cooperatives. People are the same everywhere and you do not really get that until you are actually somewhere new. Professionally Morocco made me think about business from a different perspective. Hearing from founders, going to the Technopark, and meeting women who built something from nothing made entrepreneurship feel way more personal and way less like something you only read about in a textbook. Academically I learned that some of the best learning happens outside a classroom. Every visit and every speaker taught me something I could not have gotten from a lecture. I am going home more aware of entrepreneurship, other cultures, and what it actually looks like to support someone in building something for themselves.

Thanks to this Plus3 trip I will have memories and friends that I look back on with a big smile for a long time to come.

Anna Lind