I knew this moment was going to be bittersweet. The overjoyous feeling of accomplishment coupled with the sorrow of hearing Flight 2455 is boarding to Las Vegas leaves me with mixed emotions. On one hand I am proud of myself for this two month journey in which I was able to not only work towards and see leaps and bounds of improvement in my Spanish skills but also come to some realizations about myself and my identity. While on the other hand I’m sad because the bags of Costa Rican coffee don’t seem to be sufficient in my attempt to take this place and the feeling it gives me back to the States.
This two month long trip seemed to adhere to the cliche “time flies when you’re having fun”. But genuinely for me this was one of the best times I’ve had in my life. The variety of learning and the different situations I was in gave me the opportunity to learn through a variety of mediums. In the classroom I learned how overcomplicated my thought process was and was even able to kick the awful habit of translating from English to Spanish. With my host family I mastered being able to talk about my day and learned a lot watching the news with my host dad, Wilbur encouraging me and giving me confidence throughout my stay. With friends I made surfing or playing basketball my Costa Rican slang won me a few, “gauw no le parece como un gringo mae”, “wow you don’t seem like an american bro”. Working with kids taught me other valuable lessons, ones that kids always seem to teach adults, like patience. All jokes aside, spending time with those kids was the highlight of the trip.
As I sit here reviewing my journal entries, there seems to be a recurring theme that I want to end my blog with. Big change happens poco a poco (little by little). In almost every journal entry I wrote I describe either a small setback in my journey or a small victory. What gives me hope as I review my trip is that the victories outweigh the setbacks. And at this point in my journey having this refreshing realization that I AM making progress, that I AM going in the right direction and even though I have a long way to go, the end is in sight and not only that but I am content in the journey. All of life’s difficulties are a marathon and if you only look forward to the end or the final result of something you miss out on the hidden blessing that is the act of achieving a goal, poco a poco.
