My trip with Outward Bound Costa Rica was one of the best experiences of my life so far, and it's amazing that these opportunities to travel exist for someone only 14 years old. The staff were all wonderful and helped me and the other girls adjust very well. I stayed at a beautiful island in Panama and learned how to scuba dive with a very knowledgeable teacher who always made me feel safe, even sixty feet below the surface! I got to see starfish, sea urchins, jellyfish, and all kinds of beautiful coral and wildlife. We even did a night dive and the bioluminescence under the water was beautiful. We also went to the beach nearby, and I love swimming, especially in the ocean, so seeing the beautiful blue waters and white sand was a dream come true. We did lots of rewarding service work, like reading and playing with kids at the school nearby, and picking up trash around the island. Even though I don't speak a lot of Spanish, I was able to communicate with the kids and I had a lot of fun. Then we stayed at another island in Costa Rica where we worked with conservation of sea turtles and manatees. One of my favorite parts of the trip was releasing the baby sea turtles and watching them push their way into the ocean. They were all so tiny and cute! We also got to see some adorable manatees feeding on plantain leaves. I was amazed by the amount of wildlife that was around me that I never got to see back home. We finished at Outward Bound's Rainforest Basecamp in Costa Rica. I had never see plants with leaves that were so big and green in my life! The mist that settled just atop the valley was especially beautiful. We got to work with baby goats on a farm nearby. The food throughout the whole trip was delicious, and I learned how to make many traditional Costa Rican foods that I was excited to share with my family once I got home. At the end of the trip, I didn't want to go home, even though I missed my family. I didn't even want to look at my phone again because I didn't want to ruin the magic of the beautiful ecosystems that I had been immersed in for the past two weeks. I also didn't want to leave all of my new friends. I didn't know anyone before I went, and I had only spent a short amount of time with them, but they were all amazing people and we became very close over the duration of our adventure together. Our instructors did a lot of activities with us that forced us to really get to know each other, and explore who we were becoming as young adults. Overall, I feel like I learned so many valuable lessons about other cultures and people, but I also learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am brave enough to hike through a bat cave with water that sometimes was too deep to stand in. I learned that I can make friends and be myself around people, even if I don't know them well. I learned that I am independent and can go on adventures without my family. I am so thankful to Outward Bound Costa Rica for giving me the opportunity to make friends from all over the world and experience things that I will remember forever.
