This summer marks my first summer in 5 years not spending it in Costa Rica and my first summer in 6 years not traveling abroad.
I’ll let that soak for a moment. For myself, mostly.
This is normally the time of year that I am prepping to leave the country in a matter of days and spend my summer working in the pura vida. This year, I am deciding what I will do with all of my time in which my feet are planted squarely in the U.S. Don’t get me wrong, I know this summer will be wonderful. It’s just going to be very different.
Not better, not worse, just different.
It’s what we preach at CPI to all of our groups that are experiencing culture shock. Am I experiencing culture shock? No. Well, at least not yet. I also haven’t been to Poultry Days in 7 years either. I have no idea what I’m in for.
I think it’s transition shock, actually. It’s being unsure of what to do after having done something for so long and had it as such a meaningful part of my life. I would work for nine months in the States and then three months in Costa Rica. It was a standard protocol up until now. It’s a strange feeling to remove and change such a big part of my life, but I’ve prepared myself for it for a few months now.
I have always said that I would go to Costa Rica for as long as my life allowed it. I have such good friends that I will dearly miss seeing this year. I love speaking Spanish every day. But my life became amazingly busy this summer and something had to give. That being said, I fully intend to be there next year. If nothing else, just to visit friends and spend my nights in a hostel with other worldly people.
If this sounds melancholy, I don’t mean for it to be. I have a great summer up ahead. I have lots of running and grad work to do. I am in my best friend from high school’s wedding and couldn’t be more excited for it! I am spending time in Georgia and then with my family at our lake house on Lake Cumberland too. Quite honestly, I am excited to be a part of family trips to the lake and celebrating my dad’s birthday with him for the first time in seven years. It’s usually the small things that I miss the most in Costa Rica anyway.
So here I am signing on and signing off simultaneously for the summer. Another odd feeling. Another transition. No strange encounters with Ticos, no horseback rides of my life, no coffee ice cream in a cloud forest and no gallo pinto—the breakfast of champions.
I plan to find my own adventures this summer and should there be anything noteworthy, I’ll post.
Until then, pura vida mae. : )
Jessica Lynn
