Written 1/10/17
We come to college to find ourselves, but sometimes we spend too much of our four (ish) years finding out who we want to be that we forget to find out who we are. We have to get away from our normal hustle and bustle of every day life to really step back and see what we enjoy doing. I, as well as six others in my group, and seven other volunteers from around the nation, had the fortune of coming to Costa Rica for a week long trip where we could step back, enjoy good company, great scenery, extraordinary work, and unrivaled time for reflection.
The trickiest, and in my opinion, the most important way you can get more from your life is not from finding yourself, but believing in yourself. There is no way to get around the need for see your strengths, weaknesses, and values. In the past 72 hours, I have witnessed my first ever flight delay, followed by my first flight, and my first misconnection. I have left the country for the first time, finding myself in an area where I was most definitely a minority in many senses. I have needed to rely on others for everything. But the more I have stepped out of my comfort zone the more I have learned that things stay the same. I have built my beliefs from my values, and my values from my experiences. The strange thing is, however, even though my experiences have changed, my values and beliefs have remained constant.
I can expect myself to learn more about the culture, the language and the food. I come to appreciate the people places and environment more and more all the time, but even as I sit here in the middle of a coffee farm in a Costa Rica, I feel like I could be sitting at the kitchen table of my farmhouse in Northwest Missouri. The only common denominator between the two situations is me (there’s not many similarities between a coffee farm and the farms of NWMO), so I can remain confident in myself that if I end up in a whole new type of farm, in Lower Manhattan, or on a spaceship to the moon, I am capable of hopping the hurdles and the challenges that will no doubt come my way.
The focus on this trip is popping the college bubble. Believing in yourself is the most effective way to do this. Whether you are a coffee farmer in Costa Rica who bet on yourself and the quality of your coffee in order to buy a roaster, a backpacker on your own in a new country, or you are a college student going in to take a semester final. Bet on yourself, be confident, and do your best. In the end, the only person you have to live with is yourself.
I cannot wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us, because I know it will be challenging to me in a whole new way: We’re zip lining, and I’m not 100% comfortable with heights!