Nick Kelly is afraid of heights, but that fear didn’t stop the 16-year-old from looking out at Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower or from taking a seven-hour flight at altitudes of 35,000 feet as he journeyed to Europe this summer.
In a 20-day whirlwind tour of Italy, France and the island Republic of Malta, Kelly overcame his acrophobia — fear of heights — and saw firsthand some historic icons most of us only read about in history books.
“I was so enthused, I just overlooked my fear,” Kelly said.
Kelly, along with 33 students from across the tri-state region, participated in the People to People Student Ambassadors Program, an invitation-only program created by President Dwight Eisenhower 50 years ago. Kelly was nominated for the program by someone in the Owen County School System, but he isn’t sure who made the recommendation.
“They won’t tell you, but I’d really like to thank them,” Kelly said. “I had the time of my life.”
Whether he was strolling down the Champs-Elysees in France or visiting Vatican City, Kelly said he couldn’t believe he was really in a foreign country.
“We had just finished walking through ancient Rome and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh — that’s the Colisseum. That’s the Colisseum!’ I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Kelly participated in the Heart of the Mediterranean Program, one of seven European programs offered by People to People for high schoolers. Other highlights of the trip included seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, coming face-to-face with the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and visiting Cannes, home to the famous film festival.
His favorite locale, however, wasn’t the famous monuments or paintings; it was the densely-populated island nation of Malta, due south of Sicily.
“Malta is entirely self-sufficient. They have farms, industry, everything,” he said. But what appealed to him the most was the nation’s uniformity.
“All of their houses are made of sandstone. I’m used to seeing things made of wood, and in America, people judge each other by the homes they live in. But there, everything is the same,” Kelly said.
Kelly earned both high school and college credit on the trip, and as a People to People ambassador, he said the goal was to learn as much as possible about other cultures.
“The idea is that students can get together now and learn to like each other so that when we get older, we aren’t blowing each other up,” he said.
Though the program had broad cross-cultural goals, Kelly said, “They were really there to teach us more than we were there to teach them.”
While Kelly admittedly had the time of his life, there were certain cultural differences he wasn’t prepared for.
“I don’t understand their toilets or their open-shower policy,” he joked.
The language barrier wasn’t actually much of a barrier at all according to Kelly. “Pointing and counting on your fingers went a long way,” he said. “But, trying to find our hotel wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be.”
Food was among the highlights of the trip, and Kelly said he especially enjoyed escargot, seafood and pasta. His tripmates weren’t as excited about the food however. “No offense to the city kids, but they were really picky about things like veal. I’m from Kentucky and we eat just about anything,” he said.
Kelly returned from his European trip with a broader understanding of the world July 1. He hopes to go on a similar trip next year to Australia or Spain.
“I’m hoping I can go again, but I missed so much farm work this year, I may not get to go,” he said.
His parents, Joy and Gary Kelly of Corinth, helped him fundraise for the trip.
Kelly is a rising junior at Owen County High School where he plays football and serves as class president. He is an active member at New Columbus Baptist Church.
Note: Katie Perkins, another OCHS junior, participated in a similar program to Europe but was unavailable for comment.

Click Here to Go Back to Front