Home, or Am I?

Larry, 17
We made it home.

It's kind of weird to wake up to no one in the shower. To wake up to what you want to eat and to eat when you want to eat. It hasn't taken much time for me to realize that it's all over. It's kind of hard to realize that though, because, as much as everyone wanted their beds, families etc., I can guarantee they're missing everything that we left in Costa Rica.

I learned a lot throughout this trip. At first I thought about not going...because I thought that I knew what I would get out of it, what I would encounter. But I was completely wrong. There were many big life things that I learned, as well as just a lot of little things. Some of which are words, to the way I look at things and the way  I approach situations.

It's just been an experience of a lifetime. It truly changed the way I think and it's made me question what I want out of my life and what I want my life to be. I guess before, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, I had it all set up in my head. But this trip kind of shuffled that up and it's forming a new puzzle.

It has made me realize that life is what you make it. You can either sit and think about all the materialistic possessions you have/want and be unhappy because you've been so obsessed with all of that, or you can not be worried about the materialistic things and just be happy with the basics you need to live--like the people in La Carpio as well as in Yorkin at the Stribrawpa Organization, who may not have many things in monetary value but they have plenty of the things that we in America have lost sight of, like family.

In America we're all pressured to have everything, all the luxuries; but in reality, if we have a roof over our heads, a way for food and we have a close knit family........it's all you need. Just ask the people living in La Carpio or Yorkin....who in my opinion have lives worth envying.

I think that I'll be making another visit to Costa Rica in the near future and, who knows...maybe I'll even call it home.