Carpe Diem

Day 9, June 17, 2012

On behalf of the entire Costa Rica group, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

          If you want to carpe diem, you have to step out of your comfort zone.  This has been one of the key themes of our trip so far.  Being with your daughters here in Costa Rica in this beautiful, tropical environment, unplugged and focused on the here and now, knowing every moment of this trip is precious, we have watched them rise to this challenge. 

          We passed the half-way point of our trip yesterday, and wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on this unique opportunity to work with these seventeen adventurous young souls.  We have had the gift of watching them blossom in unexpected moments of growth.  For example, a few girls immediately tried to put their Spanish to the test by attempting to haggle in a San José marketplace only hours after our plane landed.  All of the girls have tried new foods, slept in conditions very different from their bedrooms at home, and braved storms and late night turtle walks.  Most touching to us was watching their eager excitement and nervousness as we dropped them off in El Paraíso for their first night with their homestay families.  We were as attuned to the immediacy of this moment as though they were our own daughters.  And, as these girls moved out of their normal routines and sense of comfort, we have seen them grow. They have shown remarkable skill at solving the leadership and team-building puzzles put to them by the World Leadership instructors, Alicia and Randall.  All of them embraced the thrill of whitewater rafting and jumping into the river with their lifejackets on.  Their Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds, especially for those girls who came with little to no Spanish. 

         With the girls, we talked a lot before and during the trip about how new circumstances and pushing oneself to test their fears would lead to growth.  We have seen this in ourselves as well as we face the difficulties of being in a group setting twenty-four hours a day, every day, and as we embrace new foods, meet new people, and try to model calculated risk-taking.  We are better people for having “seized the day” and for traveling this journey with your daughters.  We can’t wait to see what opportunities are around the next bend.

-Mary Quirk and Lara Wulff