Steph's Birthday Reflections

My 28th Birthday

As my 28th birthday and the halfway point of our year in Colombia simultaneously approached I was flooded with an array of mixed feelings and anxieties. Have I made the right choices in my 20s? Did we make the best decision to give up our jobs and put our lives on hold to move to rural Colombia for a year, as volunteers? I couldn't help but think about my friends back home with careers, mortgages and babies...

I woke up on the 22nd of June to find the running water was out, the kitchen was invaded with ants and my Skype session with my mom, grandma and nephew back home was cut short due to the always choppy internet. These are normal occurrences in Santa Ana, but on my birthday they left me on the verge of tears as I walked to school in the midday heat on my day off. One of my co-teachers had asked me to meet her at 11am but was no where to be found so I spent some time playing and talking to students in my poor Spanish and their very basic English. They asked me a million very important questions (in Spanish), such as “Why did you paint your toenails clear?”, “What is your mother's name?" and "How do you say maquina in English?". They begged me to take their photos over and over again, demonstrating their best red carpet poses (they may not have much in Santa Ana, but one can always find a neighbor with satellite TV). My favorite part was when they decided to play "Teacher", taking turns doing their best impersonations of me. "How do you say Septiembre in English? How do you say noventa in English?", they'd say in their best teacher voices followed by an enthusiastic thumbs up or thumbs down. We laughed and laughed as I began to realize they might actually have been listening after all! And just when I was starting to think I was being stood up, my co-teacher arrived and surprised me with cake and ice cream. How she transported a pint of ice cream to Santa Ana from Cartagena I may never know. As I was leaving she said in her own broken English "You are muy cariña. To me, very special". 

As I walked back to the villa, I felt a new sense of clarity. I might not have a house, or a long-term career, or even reliable access to running water...but I do have so many other valuable things in my life. I’m gaining a new appreciation for things I once took for granted and Micah and I get to experience new things together all the time. I realized that we’re not putting our lives on hold. We’re very much living every single day.