Gotta love Nelson Mandela!

I haven't blogged in nearly a month.  For those of you who actually read this blog, please forgive me :)  My goal is to continue updating this blog every 1-2 weeks and I'm going to try my hardest to be consistent in that.  Well, there's so much to talk about--a weekend with one of my awesome college friends, Donna; two weeks in fabulous Westfield, IN over Christmas; 10 days in snowy Atlanta, GA for Young Life training; and now a little over a week back here in good ol' Costa Rica.

So, what's new?  THE SUN!  It was reappeared and it is warm and sunny here. Now this is why I moved here! Haha.

My friend Stacy, who got to travel around the world last year, recently put this quote on her Facebook wall:

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged 

to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. 

-Nelson Mandela

I have always been a big Nelson Mandela fan, but this is one of my favorites!  Now, I didn't spend more than 20 years in jail, just 4 months in Costa Rica, but being home over Christmas definitely took a magnifying glass into the ways in which I've been growing and changing down here in the tropics (which is now actually tropical!) 

Pretty much what sticks out the most is how much more tranquila I have become.  Tranquila is a very popular word that means:  tranquil, relaxed, laid-back, easy-going.  These words could not be used to describe me in the past--always running from activity to activity in high school and college thinking the world might end if I wasn't there.  Then in grad school and during the fundraising process to come here working 2-3 jobs, volunteering with Young Life, volunteering on a Board of Directions for a local sports organization for people in wheelchairs, and who knows what else!

Well, I may have just arrived (or at least further along in the process) of understanding what it means to live in the present, go with the flow, and really enjoy each moment of life (or at the very least live it).  I'd say that's a small victory!  

Alright, more to come soon...a newsletter will show it's face here within a week-10 days!