About

Hello! After graduating college, I lived in a small town in Guatemala for two years. I started this blog to share my experiences and insights. Before I left, I was scared I was wasting my youth. In the United States, my grocery store had high-quality $6 sushi, I used a washer and dryer whenever I wanted, and I was in great shape. I was scared that giving up these things would inhibit my growth and I would waste two important years in my twenties. The reality could not have been further from the truth.Growth happens when we push ourselves outside our comfort zones, and I was constantly, indefinitely, at the edge of my comfort zone in Guatemala. I took advantage of my brain’s malleability and not only learned a language, but fostered a love for language-learning that incentivized me to pick up another one. I have a foundation of unwavering friends because the validation and support that comes from struggling and experiencing newness together begets infallible friendship. There was every flavor of adventure, even in the banal moments, and I became a different person along the way. I experienced new geography, transportation, and climate, but also a society with a different set of rules. Integrating into that world has forever changed the way I view this one, and my path forward everyday is influenced by the two years I spent there. There was no better way I could have spent the onset of my twenties.