Viva La Costa Rica!: Living outside the comfort zone...

My Costa Rican experience has truly been one of a kind. I'm not even sure where to begin... As I think back to when I first arrived in San Jose, I think I was initially shocked. I certainly wasn't expecting to see some of the poverty that I had seen. However, I also saw past the poverty and saw a city that was busy, bustling, and full of life. Coming from a small community, this was somewhat foreign to me. Lafayette had nothing on this place. The first days in San Jose were eye openers for me. Seeing bars on the windows, beggars on the streets, and this random guy walking up to our bus and pretending to shoot us with a gun was not exactly what I was expecting to see. Looking back, I am so glad that I allowed myself to experience the culture, even though sometimes I truly was a little scared. I guess this is what they mean when they say that, "You can't experience those kinds of things in a classroom." This may sound silly, but San Jose also taught me how extremely important it is to make sure that the street is clear when you attempt to cross it. I won't ever forget the night when Danielle, Morgen, Laura, and I were walking back from picking up supper. Danielle and I didn't really check to see if the street was clear before we started crossing and the next thing we knew there was a city bus a couple of hundred yards down the street honking at us. Yes, we screamed a little bit! The lectures that we attended at the hotel also helped to broaden my view of how Costa Ricans actually view life here. One lecturer really inspired me. He spoke to us about how he was an entrepreneur. He believed that he could create something unique and did exactly that! They say that the United States is a place where you can make dreams come true like that, but you don't find many people willing to put forth the hard work and effort that it takes to actually make it to that point. His advice to us was to, "think outside of the box." When you really think about it, that's something that we've all heard before, but how many of us actually do it? Another thing about the Costa Rican culture that inspired me was how truly happy they are. Most of these people don't have many of the luxuries that most of us take for granted, but they are so much happier than we are with life. Appreciating what they have and taking care of what they have gives them a sense of pride that no one can take away from them. Do you want to know what most Costa Rican's would say their most valuable possession is? It's not their iPhone or iPad, it's their family. Most of us take for granted how very fortunate we are to have people that love and support us, but in Costa Rica that is probably their main source of happiness. We do have that here in the United States, but most of us are too busy caught up in the hustle and bustle of life to even make time for the ones that we love the most. This definitely gave me a whole new perspective on life and made me look forward to seeing my family members pick me up at the airport at the end of this Costa Rican adventure! San Jose was really a place where many of us were exposed to a different way of life. When we set out for Tamarindo, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the culture where we got there. It was a cute little beach town that had a gravel road that led to our resort. We stayed at the Barcelona Langosta Beach Resort. It was absolutely beautiful and was like a little piece of heaven on earth. Watching the sunrise and sunset were some of the most calming and relaxing sights that I have ever seen. Being in Tamarindo helped me to view life in a different way. The way of life wasn't rushed and hurried like a lot of my daily life is. I do realize that I was at an all inclusive resort and it would be relaxing, but it made me think about how I'm spending the little time that I have here on earth. I know that I don't want to look back at my life and remember running around and never being content, instead of enjoying the things in life that really matter to me. The most inspiring part of this trip was when our tour guides son talked to a few of us on a bus ride back to the resort about the things he had noticed about us. He wasn't being rude in anyway when he said it, but he basically said that as Americans we are always comfortable with our lives. If something is uncomfortable to us, we usually find a way to slip back into that state of comfort because we don't want to deal with something that isn't comfortable for us. At first I was a little shocked, I had thought I was handling everything well. Then I thought about what he had said and it really did make sense. Most of us aren't happy when we can't get our wi-fi to connect, much less when something really bad happens to us. We constantly try to find that place of comfort. Then he explained to us how we never really grow as a person if we live inside of our "comfort zones". At that moment it all made sense in my head. Living life isn't about being comfortable, it's about growing into that person that we were all meant to become. It's not a fast process, but we can never grow as a person if we don't leave our comfort zones. As I return to reality, I want to make sure that I take the time to enjoy the little things in life and to actually take a risk and step outside of my comfort zone. Studying abroad in Costa Rica has taught me so much more than just visiting a country, I think this experience helped to nudge me out of my comfort zone. Costa Rica you will be missed! Pura Vida!

Learning the lingo... Echo means to miss something... I'm definitely missing Costa Rica and the amazing people that I've met along the way!