As our month in Nicaragua comes to an end, I figure that a reflection post is in order, so I'm gonna make a list of things that I learned while being here for the past month.
1. Life has many lemons that it will conveniently throw in your face at the worst time.
When we got here, expecting to slide right into the swing of things and have everything organized already, we were not-so-pleasantly surprised by the fact that nothing was as it should have been. Being the slight control freak that I am, I really didn't deal well with this, and I had to learn to be ok with things taking time to settle down and I had to learn to cope with very uncomfortable and somewhat scary situations.
2. My sister and I are best friends, actually.
In the whole three weeks when it was just us and Katie, Amara and I never had a fight. One time she cried because I tried to make her face her fear of spiders and kill one, but we never actually fought, even though the situation we were in was less than favorable at the beginning. I think it's pretty awesome that as 14 and 16 year olds we can get along so well and have basically no problems. My sister is hella cool, guys :)
3. The third world is unreliable.
Nothing against third world countries, but seriously, you can't really count on anything here. You can't rely on people to sort out your problems, you can't rely on the Internet to cooperate, you can't rely on the electricity, you can't count on the water to be clean, etc. It's a very different way of living but we're kinda used to it since we've traveled a lot and lived abroad.
4. Even if you're a hypochondriac like me and take all the necessary precautions to avoid getting sick, you'll probably still get sick while traveling to sketchy places.
I usually never get sick in the States because the minute I start to feel a little off I drug up on vitamin C and Zinc and make sure to get lots of sleep so I don't get sick. But here, whatever sickness I had, the Nicaragua flu or whatever it may have been, still got me, and it was still awful. I ended up having to take antibiotics to clear that crap out of my system!
5. There is little value for life in some parts of some countries.
For example, in some villages here, they don't even name their kids until they're about 3 years old because so many of the kids die before they reach that age. There are tons of stray dogs here, so to whack a dog or to see an extremely malnourished one is no big deal. We saw this first hand today, and it was rather traumatizing. We were on the beach, all having a jolly time in the ocean. The owners of this hotel have three dogs, and two of them really like the beach, so we take them with us when we go to the beach. They kinda guard our truck and chase after other trucks/motorcycles/people on the beach, and usually when moving vehicles notice that there are two crazy dogs right near their tires, they slow down to make sure they don't hit the dogs. But today, this one white truck was driving by, and the dogs were chasing after it as usual, and this asshole truck sped way up instead of slowing down, and they hit one of the dogs. The poor thing died almost instantly, and the people in the truck barely even cared. They backed up and looked at the dog, and then just drove away. Turns out that the driver of the truck was a good friend of the owners of our hotel, and they'd known each other for ten years. This was the first time Amara and I had actually seen an animal die, and it was horribly sad because the people in the truck didn't even care at all, they just drove away without even stopping to look back or apologize to someone who was supposedly his friend. It was super depressing and just goes to show that everyone sees life differently. That's definitely something I'll never forget and it really makes me see the importance of all life, as death often does.
6. There are also good people in every place, aside from the people who don't value life.
There are people everywhere who are genuinely good and who care about others. This is refreshing and it feels good to know that there are still good people out there in a world that seems rather cruel and unloving. Meeting people who really care restores my faith in humanity and if nothing else shows that not everyone is only concerned about themselves.
7. I'm really lucky.
I'm having experiences right now that some adults don't even get to have. My mom pointed out that the first time she ever swam in the ocean was when she was 17, and here I am, 16 years old, and I've been to 16 countries and have swam (swum? swimmed? how do you English?!) in countless oceans. When I think about how much I've been able to experience and how eventful my 16 years have been, I really can't do anything but be extremely thankful. My parents have provided countless opportunities for us to do crazy things, and I really am very thankful to have had the chance to experience so much in my life thus far.
8. Not everything is worth worrying about.
Sometimes, when little things happen, it's way better to just let them go than to bother thinking about how to fix them. I've kinda learned to go with the flow and not be so fussy about the small things, because in ten years, even ten days, are they really gonna matter? Probably not, so I've learned to just let them slide and move on.
9. Life is pretty darn great.
We've been back for a couple days now and I've had some time to think about everything that we did and experienced while we were in San Juan del Sur. I'm finding that I'm taking away a lot of things that are similar to what I took away from the year in India. Now that we're home again I'm noticing the more negative aspects of life/Bellevue/etc and I'm also noticing the many positives. I am deeply humbled by the month in Nicaragua and I feel extremely blessed and lucky and happy that I've been able to make a difference in peoples' lives and that I've been able to experience so much in my mere 16 years of life.
Life is a beautiful thing and every day is a gift.
YAY FOR BEING ALIVE AND WELL!
Thank you all for reading, and this shall be continued the next time we go on a crazy trip :)
Aneesa
1. Life has many lemons that it will conveniently throw in your face at the worst time.
When we got here, expecting to slide right into the swing of things and have everything organized already, we were not-so-pleasantly surprised by the fact that nothing was as it should have been. Being the slight control freak that I am, I really didn't deal well with this, and I had to learn to be ok with things taking time to settle down and I had to learn to cope with very uncomfortable and somewhat scary situations.
2. My sister and I are best friends, actually.
In the whole three weeks when it was just us and Katie, Amara and I never had a fight. One time she cried because I tried to make her face her fear of spiders and kill one, but we never actually fought, even though the situation we were in was less than favorable at the beginning. I think it's pretty awesome that as 14 and 16 year olds we can get along so well and have basically no problems. My sister is hella cool, guys :)
3. The third world is unreliable.
Nothing against third world countries, but seriously, you can't really count on anything here. You can't rely on people to sort out your problems, you can't rely on the Internet to cooperate, you can't rely on the electricity, you can't count on the water to be clean, etc. It's a very different way of living but we're kinda used to it since we've traveled a lot and lived abroad.
4. Even if you're a hypochondriac like me and take all the necessary precautions to avoid getting sick, you'll probably still get sick while traveling to sketchy places.
I usually never get sick in the States because the minute I start to feel a little off I drug up on vitamin C and Zinc and make sure to get lots of sleep so I don't get sick. But here, whatever sickness I had, the Nicaragua flu or whatever it may have been, still got me, and it was still awful. I ended up having to take antibiotics to clear that crap out of my system!
5. There is little value for life in some parts of some countries.
For example, in some villages here, they don't even name their kids until they're about 3 years old because so many of the kids die before they reach that age. There are tons of stray dogs here, so to whack a dog or to see an extremely malnourished one is no big deal. We saw this first hand today, and it was rather traumatizing. We were on the beach, all having a jolly time in the ocean. The owners of this hotel have three dogs, and two of them really like the beach, so we take them with us when we go to the beach. They kinda guard our truck and chase after other trucks/motorcycles/people on the beach, and usually when moving vehicles notice that there are two crazy dogs right near their tires, they slow down to make sure they don't hit the dogs. But today, this one white truck was driving by, and the dogs were chasing after it as usual, and this asshole truck sped way up instead of slowing down, and they hit one of the dogs. The poor thing died almost instantly, and the people in the truck barely even cared. They backed up and looked at the dog, and then just drove away. Turns out that the driver of the truck was a good friend of the owners of our hotel, and they'd known each other for ten years. This was the first time Amara and I had actually seen an animal die, and it was horribly sad because the people in the truck didn't even care at all, they just drove away without even stopping to look back or apologize to someone who was supposedly his friend. It was super depressing and just goes to show that everyone sees life differently. That's definitely something I'll never forget and it really makes me see the importance of all life, as death often does.
6. There are also good people in every place, aside from the people who don't value life.
There are people everywhere who are genuinely good and who care about others. This is refreshing and it feels good to know that there are still good people out there in a world that seems rather cruel and unloving. Meeting people who really care restores my faith in humanity and if nothing else shows that not everyone is only concerned about themselves.
7. I'm really lucky.
I'm having experiences right now that some adults don't even get to have. My mom pointed out that the first time she ever swam in the ocean was when she was 17, and here I am, 16 years old, and I've been to 16 countries and have swam (swum? swimmed? how do you English?!) in countless oceans. When I think about how much I've been able to experience and how eventful my 16 years have been, I really can't do anything but be extremely thankful. My parents have provided countless opportunities for us to do crazy things, and I really am very thankful to have had the chance to experience so much in my life thus far.
8. Not everything is worth worrying about.
Sometimes, when little things happen, it's way better to just let them go than to bother thinking about how to fix them. I've kinda learned to go with the flow and not be so fussy about the small things, because in ten years, even ten days, are they really gonna matter? Probably not, so I've learned to just let them slide and move on.
9. Life is pretty darn great.
We've been back for a couple days now and I've had some time to think about everything that we did and experienced while we were in San Juan del Sur. I'm finding that I'm taking away a lot of things that are similar to what I took away from the year in India. Now that we're home again I'm noticing the more negative aspects of life/Bellevue/etc and I'm also noticing the many positives. I am deeply humbled by the month in Nicaragua and I feel extremely blessed and lucky and happy that I've been able to make a difference in peoples' lives and that I've been able to experience so much in my mere 16 years of life.
Life is a beautiful thing and every day is a gift.
YAY FOR BEING ALIVE AND WELL!
Thank you all for reading, and this shall be continued the next time we go on a crazy trip :)
Aneesa
Aneesa -
ReplyDeleteI read your reflections with great joy! The wisdom that you express in this post, is far beyond your years! You have turned into a wonderful young lady with a great head on your shoulders. Keep looking at the world the way that you do - you are setting a great example for your peers as well as us old folk . . .
Thanks so much for reading, Shawn! And thank you for your positive feedback. I'm glad you liked it! :)
DeleteAneesa