July 28 (Epilogue)

7/28/2012 at 5:30pm

I'm sitting on the deck with my sisters, their boyfriends, two of my cousins, and two of all of our mutual friends here at home in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  It's their graduation party and we're currently playing a card game, and all I can think about is how different everything is.  Especially after learning so much about biology and trees, I keep noticing how different the plants are, the food, the customs.  Not better or worse, but different.  I feel stressed as well because I came back to a lot of things I have to get done in the next week so that I will be able to head off to study abroad in Spain in the fall.  My house feels so big, and so quiet: I'm used to the wind blowing through the metal roof of the home I was living in while in Santa Elena.  I should be used to this by now, this going to and coming from Costa Rica, shouldn't I?  This is the third time I've had to do this (although I did spend more time there).  I am trying to be patient and understanding and trying to enjoy myself.  I've had some laughs.  And I'm sure I'll get accustomed to life in the United States again.  And then I'm off on more adventures where I'll have to readjust some more!  It's kind of scary thinking about Spain but it's also exciting.

Above all I'm just so very grateful to the Grace Groner Foundation and everyone involved there for the opportunity to have experienced all that I did while in Costa Rica, and thankful to God for having shown me so much.  I hope to be able to return in the future (my mind is thinking "as soon as possible!") to be able to continue my involvement in the community and hopefully to research and begin writing my thesis for my senior year of college!

This epilogue, then, is my last post and closes my adventures in Costa Rica this year during June and July.  It has been a wild ride, and a rewarding one, and I only hope that what I was able to contribute while there adequately measures up to what was expected of me, and that it is useful, because I have received so much from the experience that I don't even know what to do myself anymore, haha!  Pura vida y que a Dios le bendiga!