Travel Bugg

Costa Rica: One Year Later

Exactly one year ago I was on a plane headed for Central America to join the Latin America Studies Program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

I had no expectations; I was completely alone. I didn’t know Spanish. I didn’t know anything about Latin American history or politics. I was — as my dad likes to say — jumping off the edge of the world.

After a year of reflection, more travel in Eastern Europe, the death of someone close to me and the beginning of the transition toward graduation and adulthood, I decided to look back to what I learned from my time in Central America.

It’s an old list, but I think the lessons still hold.

Photo: Natalie Kadar

You’re going to fail every single day.

And you’re going to get back up again,grab that stick of hope, put on your blindfold of faith and absolutely destroy that piñata of inhibition.

Then you’re going to say something embarrassing and eat some more gallo pinto.

You’re going to cultivate some of the best relationships of your life: from your amazing host families, to the other students, to your professors, to the guy who sells strawberries on the street corner. These are the most important. 

Enjoy it.

It’s beautiful.

Pura Vida, mae

Exit mobile version