You have been rough on me. Typhoid, parasites, anxiety. There were times when I had never felt so alone. You taught me to be honest with myself, to deal with my problems, and after 10 years, I am. I have grown. I came here, a directionless insecure teenage girl and now I'm leaving a stronger and wiser person.
I came with many goals: learn spanish, meet family I had never met before, travel south america, learn soccer, find myself, find God...
I learned spanish, met my family, traveled Brasil, Bolivia and Peru. I found myself. I know who I am and what I want. I have an understanding of how past events influence who I am, and why I think the way I do. I still have doubts about God and I still have trouble believing and having faith, but what's more important is that I came to terms with my past and started to heal. Baby steps. The rest will come in time.
You have shown me the ugly side of life. Poverty. Corruption. Ignorance. Prejudice. Inequality. You made me a little less selfish. To appreciate more and want less. To work hard for everything that I want because not everybody has the opportunities that I do. To not take a single thing for granted. Sounds cliche, but so so true.
Yes Bolivia, you have changed me. It's been a long road, but at the same time, time has flown. Tomorrow I will be in America.
I will never forget my experiences here and the lessons you have taught me.
Thank you.
You are wise and insightful. You are honest. You are looking at your experience and claiming the lessons while accepting the stumbles. This is good. You are good.
ReplyDeleteI'd say one of the biggest lessons I learned overseas was that life is a journey. There isn't a destination in which life will be clear, or I will have made it, or I'll be perfect. It just doesn't happen. You seem to have grasped a similar lesson.
"Baby steps. The rest will come in time." So true. It's okay to have doubts. It's okay to have questions. Like Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." You're living babe. Maybe part of finding God is part of finding yourself. I like to think they're very much the same.
Happy travels, wherever they lead you.