Kayla Dillard, 11th grader from Harvard-Westlake School, teaches children as we volunteered at preschools in Laos with the organization Give Children A Choice.

Marcella Park / Harvard-Westlake High School 11th Grade

It was the first time I was traveling alone. Destination? Laos. Purpose? An “Investigative Journalism Adventure” to document the effects of the Secret War waged on Laos by the United States during the Vietnam War-a phenomenal, eye-opening opportunity that is one of many open to the average high school student.

I landed in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, at an airport the size of a small train station and passed through customs by handing my documents to officers sitting in little bamboo booths. With documentation all cleared, I made my first visit to the headquarters of COPE, an organization that provides prosthetics to victims of the cluster bombs left in the ground from the Secret War. These cluster bombs, with decades of neglect, have weathered into devastating land mines, releasing explosive destruction not to the intended targets of North Vietnamese soldiers, but to the civilians now residing in homelands on which roughly one-third of the two million tons of ordnance remain unexploded. The result is inevitably tragic. Indeed, children playing in fields infested with mines can only lead to tragic.

My experience in another world initially began as an academic interest-something most students would do only for application points for college. But upon listening to the stories of the Laos people and learning of the devastation, loss, hope, and redemption revolving around the Secret War remnants and COPE’s efforts, I find myself genuinely inspired, prompting the collaborative school club effort of producing a video documentary on the issue to raise more awareness.

Traveling for the summer as a high school student is not the easiest decision to make. The choice is filled with logistical headaches and fearful anxiety of the unknown and unfamiliar. But, for me, the choice can expose the revelation of what else is out there in a world, which is too often dismissed by social media sites and frivolous pursuits surrounding and dominating our thoughts. For students, as well as for parents, I would say this is the other side of tragic-when opportunities are abound and students decide to look the other way.