Goodbyes are hard. Imagine it being a month and you’ve gotten to spend some pretty awesome and some pretty intense moments with the people around you, and right as you’re creating bonds and friendships with the people you’ve met, boom you have to go. Advice time: appreciate every moment on this trip even if it’s difficult to digest. Although I have been on other study abroad programs in the past, this has been the most challenging. I say that because you see things you wouldn’t normally see, experience things you wouldn’t normally experience, and learn things that you wouldn’t really learn if you didn’t experience them there. You have the opportunity to interact with the arts and culture first hand. It’s tangible. It’s alive. It has been mentally and physically challenging, but it has been so rewarding.
Before we left, we were given a reverse culture shock “orientation.” You must be asking yourself what that means, right? We thought the same thing, but it’s real my friends. It means exactly what it sounds like. You really will get a culture shock whenever you go back to the life you had before this trip. There won’t be any more walking through cobble stone streets to go to Casa Herrera to have class, or going on a stroll through the central park, or pushing your way through the most colorful markets you’ll ever see. Point is, you’ll have to prepare yourself to go to Guatemala and Belize, and just as much when you go back home. You have to give yourself time to get used to going back simply because you’re not the same person you initially were.
When leaving Central America each of us was given a quote. Mine was by Henry Miller: “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” That is exactly what I felt all throughout this trip. So, my post is an homage of having the opportunity to experience, see, hear, taste, touch, feel, and most importantly, expose myself to things I hadn’t previously given myself to. Travelling doesn’t have to just be a trip from Point A to Point B, but rather, the growth you experience in between them.
And finally, I just want to say thank you to all the people I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to. I’ve learned so much from each and every one of you. Gracias a todos!
