Morocco
What I thought would be just a visit to Morocco quickly turned into weeks of endless discovery. I was thrown into a culture I barely understood, with only my mediocre French skills to get by. Between navigating street markets, walking through landmarks, living with a host family, and talking with locals, I was lost. The language barrier was inevitable and the culture shock was a lot to process, but after a few days I realized that the discomfort in feeling lost didn’t have to be a bad thing.
So much of Moroccan culture is centered around hospitality. Whether I was following a stranger after asking for directions, kicking around a soccer ball with kids on the beach, or engaging in traditional tea ceremonies, I felt strangely connected to my Southern roots – a culture with similarly welcoming values – despite being oceans away. There’s a bag of Moroccan mint tea I brought home with me, and every time I fix myself a cup just like I learned back in Morocco, I’m reminded of that distant feeling of home.
I traveled through the entire country, going from the coast to the big cities, to the desert towns, and to the heart of the Sahara. Each location presented an opportunity to immerse myself into the unique culture that each region had to offer. Although speaking French with locals was as nerve-wracking as it was exciting, internally reflecting and deciding what my surroundings meant was equally rewarding.
I have a journal that I kept while in Morocco. From cover to cover, it’s filled with details of every day I was there: the places I explored, the people I met, the cuisine I tried, the friends I made, the conversations I had. Though I can remember few of these specific events off the top of my head now, rereading all these accounts puts me back in the headspace of sixteen-year-old me trying to make sense of the beautifully foreign culture in Morocco, as if I’m reliving that magic again for the first time.
Even stronger than the memories provoked from my writing are the ones in my photographs. There’s undoubtedly something invaluable about putting down technology and truly living in the moment, but the power of capturing specific moments – in which the light, surroundings, people, and expressions will never be the same – is, to me, worth a few seconds behind a lens.