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On FOX 50 at 10: A teenager shot, killed in Nash County not long after his 17th birthday. Hear how his mother is keeping his memory alive — A teenager was shot and killed in Nash County not long after his 17th birthday. Coming up on FOX 50 at 10, hear from his mother about how she intends to keep his memory alive. more

Published: 2022-05-25 08:00:00 Updated: 2022-05-25 08:00:00

Posted May 25, 2022 8:00 a.m. EDT

By Joelene Wolfe, WRAL contributor

During back-to-school night for my eighth grader, I happened to see a tiny sign sitting on a classroom table. It said, “TRIP TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL." Like a bee to honey, I flew over and took a picture. I asked the teacher, but he didn’t know about it. So, I was determined to find out.

I am a huge proponent of the benefits of travel, especially for kids. Their world is only as big as you make it for them. So allowing them to see and experience as much as they can, opens up their hearts and minds to new people and cultures. Needless to say, when I got home, I signed up for an informational session.

My next job was to convince my daughter and husband. At this point, my family knows that when I have an idea in my little brain, it is pretty hard to stop me. Always with good intentions, I typically achieve what I set out to do. This time was no different. The rest is history.

Flash forward to a few months after signing up. I was quadruple-checking with my daughter that she was still okay going to Europe for 10 days without her family. While I have been on almost the exact tour years back and was confident she would be well taken care of, she had never been to Europe nor been away from us for so long. Oh, and did I mention that she didn’t know any of the kids going? There was that! She assured me she would be fine, and she was right.

All packed and ready to rock to the Iberia region, she was a little nervous, but I assured her, it wasn’t fear she was feeling, it was excitement. I saw her off at the airport and off she went. All set up with WhatsApp, international text/calling and every other means of contacting us short of smoke signals, the lines of communication were open and ready. Our deal was that she had to call every night, so we can hear about her experiences and that she was doing well.

For the first three days, I barely heard a peep from her. I was more annoyed than worried. I was thinking, “Child, we sent you, so we could live vicariously through you. Call us!” Then my husband intervened to make sure she would call us, and from then on we video chatted almost every night. She was so busy, gallivanting from one amazing place to the next, she barely had time to breathe, let alone call us. The true test was when I asked if she missed us, and she flat out said, “Nope." I took this as a good sign.

As the days went on, we heard about the scavenger hunt at the Prado Museum, the cathedrals in Madrid, beaches in Lisbon, the flamenco show, the churros, and of course the Real Madrid soccer game. GOOOOOOAL!

Her favorite place was a toss-up between Toledo, Spain, and Porto, Portugal. Her favorite food was gelato, and she was amazed by how old everything was. She said her favorite thing about the trip was making new friends. We really knew it was a good trip when she was sad it was over and was already making plans for us all to go back together.

I believe I saw that small sign sitting on that desk for a reason: To give our daughter the gift of experience and lasting memories, one I hope to can give again and again and again.

“See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream.” – Ray Bradbury

Joelene Wolfe is a mom, actor, writer & marketer who recently moved to the Triangle from the NY/NJ area. She strives to live every day to the fullest and really enjoys helping others do the same. For the record, she never gets tired of being serenaded with the song, Jolene. You can follow Joelene on Instagram @joeyinthetriangle

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