A weekend on a Mediterranean island could have been mine. Relaxing on the beach. Admiring the mountains. Perhaps a palace tour or a walk among the Moorish remains. It could have been mine, had I said yes. All of my friends were going. I was in the middle of my semester as a Spanish student in Barcelona, thanks to a program in which my room and board cost the same as it would have had I spent the semester in a Midwestern dormitory. A year and a half of straight A’s in my college classes hadn’t eliminated my fear of
