Notre-Dame Cathedral holds a special place in the hearts of the French people, as well as in my own. I first encountered this architectural gem during my freshman year of highschool while on a french exchange trip with my school. This trip for me was hands down the most courageous thing that I had ever undertaken up until this point. I had stepped way outside of my comfort zone by flying to a foreign country that hardly spoke my native language and staying with a family that I had never met. Throughout middle school, I was relatively shy and not very confident in myself, whether that specifically pertains to my looks, my abilities, or my French fluency. Choosing to go on this trip symbolizes my first “big kid” decision.

This was the trip where I found my voice, quite literally. I was going to school with the French schoolkids and living with my exchange student, but I struggled to find the guts to really immerse myself in the language. I had gotten by with the basics of, “please”, “thank you”, and “hello”, but not much beyond that spectrum, simply because I was too nervous to get something wrong. This continued for the first couple of days. Then one day, it finally came to me; my voice. While out on the town sightseeing, we ended up stopping in front of Notre Dame. Here, there were merchants out front selling everything from hats to shirts to flowers. I really wanted one of the key chains that had miniature versions of Notre Dame on it. I walked over to the merchant and said in english, “May I have a keychain, please?” He responds, “En Français?” I mustered up the courage to speak up and practice my French to the local man. I responded with, “Puis-je acheter un porte-clés?” He smiles and goes, “You have a great accent.” After that, I felt so much more confident in, not only my french-speaking abilities, but also in myself as a whole. Ever since that moment in front of Notre Dame, I have been a much more confident person. Even though that was a simple story, I think that because I was in such a vulnerable place in my life, being that I was away from my family and away from what I had always known, hearing encouragement from somebody really affected me in deeper ways than I could have ever imagined. So, in summary, in front of Notre Dame was where I stepped out of my comfort zone and found some confidence!