Blog IV


It’s been Thirty-four days since I arrived on this incredible island.  Thirty-four days since I moved to this new place I’ll, one day call  home. I know this process will change me in so many ways and looking  back on how different I was will be crazy, but being in it is overwhelming. Overwhelming in the sense of exhilaration, of knowing your in the middle of something special while it’s happening.
Knowing I am still in command of this journey until it becomes a memory. This feeling is what pushes me to take risks and to make the most of my time here, knowing that while it feels like I have so much ahead, I’ll be back in Boston in the blink of an eye. I heard the phrase “say yes to everything” a lot in my many training sessions before arriving in country. I don’t think I really  thought about what it meant until I got here, but that phrase is a  gateway to one million different adventures with so many friends I have  yet to meet. By following this rule I have already had some of the times of my life, and I will keep using it until April and beyond. 


One of my favorite times in these last Thirty-four days was during our  closing seminar. We paddle-boarded to a waterfall in the middle of the  jungle. It was
a natural reserve forest in the south of Florianópolis. When we arrived, storm clouds were already becoming darker and darker and then, almost on cue, as I stood up on my paddle board,
I felt the first drops. By the time everyone else was on and ready to  go it was raining faster, and after five min it was pouring. It was the thick rain, the one in the really humid air that thunders down  like a drain has been opened above, soaking everything below. But we paddled on, and I continued to wipe my face because I could not  see. I was drenched, annoyed, and soaking wet. But then I just  stopped… I looked and I listened. The rain poured down on the lake and shook the forest silent. I felt so  small, like the world is so beautiful and I’m so lucky to be part of it. I started laughing. Not for any particular reason but just at the  world, or maybe even with it. I let the rain cover my body and just  laughed. It was simple, but it was nice. That was the first time in the  last Thirty-four days where I felt truly at home. It was in that moment I just rolled with it, when I just said yes, that I realized all that I  was missing. All I changed was my thoughts, which then changed my experience. Allowing myself to live in this mindset will be why when I look back on my time  here I will be proud of who I am and what I’ve accomplished.