MY EXPERIENCE AS ALCOA SCHOLAR

I had never thought that a scholar grant could give me an opportunity like this one that I'm gonna tell you.
The story have not started this year, this one started the last year when I sent the application to a grant that one year after, would arrive at home.
I was sixteen years old when I applied the first time for the grant to Alcoa Scholars.
My aunt and my uncle work in Alcoa's foundation since I was a child and they said to me that there was a grant that consisted of going to a National Park in USA to live an enviromental experience with people from a lot of different countries. If I'm honest, I had never been so interested in the environment in spite of other environmental experiences that I had lived before this one.
But in spite of that, I decided to try and to send it. In 2016, I wasn't chose, but one year after, I considered that I had to try it again and the grant arrived.
I always say that I have been in luck twice in my life and one of them was the day that I knew that I would go to Yosemite.
Suddenly, August arrived and the date was even so close. I was a little bit nervous, although the people that had been chosen decided to make a fb group to meet each other , an idea which was perfect to meet everyone before the trip.
The date arrived and I took the plane, I remember how I said goodbye to my family in the airport and meeting the other girls of my country. I remember how excited we were !
After fourteen hours of flights we were there, in San Francisco.
I remember meeting everyone in the airport and meeting the place where we were going to spend the first day. There were a lot of people of everywhere and we started to know each one.
The first three days we were in another place, talking about how would be the experience in the backcountry and preparing ourselves to do it.
I remember the first day with my backpack and how everyone in Yosemite valley looked at us thinking of our madness . I remember how heavy was my backpack. 
I have to tell you, future scholars, that the first days weren't easy. It was hard, so hard. At night, it was a lot of times so cold and the next day, you were exhausted, but when I finished the backpack and I came back to the camp and to my country, I realiced that this had been the best experience of my life.
I'll never forget Natasha and Lawrence and how they looked after everyone of my group, my group of the backpack and how we laughed during all the experience, sleeping under stars , talking and share our different countries, missing my family, the park and that hint that makes it special , singing every night american songs and how close was everyone with me. I discovered the importance that the environment has in our lives and why we have to look after this one. I discovered the importance of have lived an experience like this one in all your whole life. It was also used to learn English and in my case, to practise French with people of Quebec, a dream that I had always wanted to live.
And nowadays I wanna say that I'm so grateful 'cause without Alcoa and Naturebridge, this wouldn't have been possible.
Thanks to everyone for talking and understanding me, for laughing together, for helping me when I was tired, for walking and making an efforce as a group.
 I can only say THANK YOU, I swear that I'll never forget how were my feelings there and the people that made of this experience something ineffable and something that I can not explain with words.
And for you, for the future scholars, as far as I'm concerned I recommend to everyone to live this experience with Alcoa's foundation and Naturebridge, to learning about the environment with different projects and to meeting people from other countries with different cultures and thoughts, to improve yourself and to realice that you only need a little bit to be happy,   an incredible place and people to have fun.
THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!

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