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It's a 9 months story of traveling across all of Latin America! My mentor decided that he wanted to travel in between his first and second semester of his architecture degree, so that's exactly what he did! He first went to Tijuana, then to Baja, then took a ferry to Mazatlan. After that, he traveled to Cancun and then exited Mexico, traveling all the way to Guatemala. After staying there for a bit, he took a plane to Colombia, stopping at San Andreas and then the capital Bogota. While he was there, he connected with some international friends he had made during college! The last leg of the trip was to Venezuela, then back to Colombia, then finally Lima, Peru. He spent some more time in Lima, then finally came back home to Nogales, Arizona.

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After one more semester of study, he decided he wanted to travel again! This time, he'd be traveling across Europe during the height of the Cold War, biking as far as he could. He started in Amsterdam, buying a bike there, then going through Copenhagen, northern Germany, Belgium, southern Germany, then back to Amsterdam. This isn't the end though! After that, he stayed with a friend in southern Germany with a friend from Hungary. It was a stroke of good luck, as his grandmother was actually from Hungary, so he got the chance to visit her hometown! His last stop before he headed back was Czechoslovakia, but I'll tell that story in another section since that was a whole experience.

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While my mentor was visiting Czechoslovakia, he really got to see what a police state was like. He constantly had to check in with the police every day so they knew his plans and whereabouts, and he was hardly out of sight of some law enforcement. He also got to meet an organization named Charter 77, a freedom movement trying to get rid of the communist dictatorship. He met them only a few years before they actually succeeded, with him meeting them in 1986 and the overthrowing happening in 1989!

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It's important to take advantage of when you're younger, since it gets a lot harder to do things freely once you have a spouse, kids, and a solid job to take care of. Enjoy traveling or something else, even if you have to take a semester or year off from traveling!

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We're all going to encounter a lot of stress in our lives, that's a guarantee. What's important is how we deal with it. For him, it was meditation, but it could be just about anything if it works for you!

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You don't need to be stingy to do well, but it's important to be educated and to not show off with flashy things. Being smart with your money helps you a lot in the long term, and it also helps insulate you from economic crises!

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Baby boomers dramatically changed the view of aging in that they were the first generation to really start caring about their health! They exercised regularly, ate better, and had surgeries performed to improve their health! Before their generation, people at 65 were basically considered dead as a result of all the smoking, drinking, poor nutrition, and overwork (his words, not mine!). Overall, aging has started to grow in terms of expanding lifespan, but we still have a lot of issues regarding healthcare and life decisions.

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One undeniable aspect of the United States is that baby boomers are the most prolific voters, and the money follows the votes. As a result, when they were in university, money went to the universities. When they entered the workforce, money went to support businesses, and so on so forth. Now that they're entering retirement, money is following them to wherever they retire, bringing it to warmer states like Arizona!

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Well, if it wasn't already self-explanatory, this was one of the happiest days of his life! Although he got married later in life than most other people, it made no difference. He gained a new family that day, and he loves that family to this day.

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My mentor has always had a deep connection with technology. He actually got one of the first ever personal computers from his work at Harvard! That also meant that the .com bubble bursting hurt a great deal for him, however. There was too much money going to too few stocks, with Microsoft and other tech giants trying to eliminate their competition. It wiped out about half the stock market in that area!

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Any American knows where they were on that day if they were old enough to remember. For him, he was at work in Boston, and he saw it live on BBC. He saw the second plane hit the towers and immediately went home after that. Everyone was afraid, and this was actually the motivation for him to go back to Arizona. Boston had been ruined by 9/11, and nobody can blame him for that.

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You're probably never going to have such easy access to education ever again in your life, so make the most of it! Being educated not only lets you be more knowledgeable about world events, but it makes you a better person as well. Take advantage of that!

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While he doesn't have a specific favorite song from them, their songs are constantly stuck in his head!

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This was his senior prom dance song, and it'll always stay with him!

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While he stopped paying as much attention to music once he left his 20s, Green Day still stuck out to him!

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As much of a cliche this may be (according to him), thinking positively really lets you do anything you put your mind to! Take athletes as an example: they have a routine and they tell themselves they're the best, and then they do great! Confidence and positivity are everything!

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Just about every major societal change in modern day can be attributed to technology! Whether it's the internet or a personal computer, they've enabled an incredible amount of advances. During his time in high school, there was no easy access to information like we do now with our internet. Even in college, the first personal computer was only invented in 1971! A far cry from all the fancy laptops we have now. Now we have instant communication, instant access to knowledge, and so much more, all of which we take for granted!

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Winning the Rotary Foundation Scholarship!

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Winning the Rotary Foundation Scholarship!

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My mentor had always dreamed of living or studying in Spain, simply because of the fact that it was just so beautiful to him as an architecture major! The most amazing part? He won this scholarship the day of his wedding! He came in for the interview a few hours before the wedding against a panel of 12 people. Shortly after the wedding ended, he received a letter telling him that he had won! One of the most amazing days of his life, with no doubt at all.

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I know this title might seem strange, and it is a strange story, but don't worry, I got permission to share this. One day on the way back from a business trip, he ended up in a Moscow airport. While there, he saw a massage chair and decided "Hey, may as well try it out!" Well he couldn't read the instructions seeing as how they were in Russian, but he pushed a button to begin the massage. A pad came down on his leg and pinched his muscle, but he didn't think anything of it. At least, until after he landed and went to sleep back at home. Once he woke up, his entire leg below the knee was black and blue! Turns out, that pinch had caused a hematoma in his leg, and he had to wait over a month before he could walk again!