"Oh, but Paris isn't for changing planes...

...it's for changing your outlook! For throwing open the windows and letting in... letting in la vie en rose."

Two years ago, I was a student living in Paris. Paris France. The city of lights. I was there. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It seems so long ago...and yet it seems like yesterday at the same time. There are so many things I can remember perfectly...like the courtyard of the old building where we had class and church, the old man we met on the street who ate razerblades to earn money, the sound of the air rushing through the metro tunnel, or the smell of the bakery down the street from my host family's house. I've been wondering if my time there changed me. Did my experience there throw open the windows of my life and allow for a change in perception? A change in attitude? A change at all?

And I have to answer yes. Now, were these completely life-altering changes? No, I think not. But certain things that I saw and experienced there have changed the way I feel about some things. Let me give you an example. So many times in sunday school or in conversation with friends, when you discuss what makes the temple different from any other place, you hear something like "well when I went to Europe I went to these big cathedrals and while they were nice they were also big and cold and just didn't feel peaceful." Well now I've been there too. 

But my perspective is quite different. First of all, when these beautiful churches were originally constructed, they were sacred. They 

were special. People sacrificed so they could be built. They sacrificed so they could visit their place of worship. Do people today reserve the same kind of reverence for the cathedrals as they did hundreds of years ago? No, I don't believe so, except for maybe those who still are religious. I kind of feel like expressing a feeling like that about another 

religion shows ignorance and maybe even pride. To those people, the cathedrals they built were their houses of God, just like our churches and temples are. How do you think they would feel walking into one of our churches with the industrial carpet and metal chairs and burlap walls? I don't think the two should be compared. Our temples and their cathedrals are each beautiful because of the devotion and sacrifice and belief of those who created them. I don't think I realized that until I saw them in person. 

Since I visited Paris, I have a keen interest in the people I see in random places. Where did they come from? What 

do they think? Who do they love? I know I picked this up from being there. I spent a lot of time on my own, exploring the city, meeting and conversing with strangers. It's common to hear that someone learned from their experience abroad that "people are the same anywhere." I'm not sure you can learn that until you are away from your comfort zone. Before, the idea of people in Paris was so foreign...it was almost unimaginable. They would be so differ

ent, so strange. Of course that isn't true. Now that I've lived it, I've realized that people are people. Why be afraid to talk to someone I don't know? Why try to judge anyone I meet? One day I was sitting in a little ledge on the side of the Louvre, reading Ernest Hemingway. A young French man walked by, stopped, turned around and came back towards me. He said in French, "I just have to know...what is a girl like you doing, sitting by the Louvre in the middle of the afternoon reading a book?" I simply told him that I was a college student from America and I just thought this was a good a place as any to read. He said "Fascinating" and wished me a good day and a pleasant stay in his country, and then went on his way. I find myself thinking about that short conversation some days. And I find myself thinking like him, wondering what someone I saw is doing, why they are where they are, how they got there. From living in Paris, I learned how to be more open - how to let people in and how to relate to them in ways I never before imagined. Maybe that's part of the "la vie en rose" - the idea that everyone has good in them, and everyone can show you that good if you give them a chance.

I hope I get the chance to go back someday. What an amazing adventure. I know I will treasure those memories forever. And although I relished the opportunity to be there and to take in everything, I think I would appreciate even more the next time. And it would be so much more enjoyable to share my experience with someone I truly love. What an amazing adventure. I saw and did and learned things that did change my outlook. Thinking back, I can understand why the French have a reputation for "seeing life through rose-colored glasses." There is so much beauty and good in the world - right in front of us. All we have to do is look.