7. I began to say “I love you” more often than usual.
When you’re halfway across the world all you want to do is speak to your friends and family every chance you get. For many reasons, once you see second-world countries and their families, you start to miss and value yours at home. Once I got back home, I made sure my mother knew I appreciated her more and all the things she had to offer.
8. I’ve become more spontaneous and with that, I took on new adventures.
After parasailing and touring around a Safari (SCARY AF) – I needed to see more. Before, I would sit around and think “that would be a cool idea,” but never took action. It’s an awesome feeling to say “Hey, I did that!”
9. Re-evaluating yourself is one of the major keys of knowing you have changed after this experience.
While you’re waiting for your flight back home, you start to question and list the things you should do differently once you are back. For me, I wanted to dig deeper into politics and stay up to date with my community.Since then, I have voted and donated more. It basically all goes down to “ you can’t change the world unless you can change yourselves.”
10. Reminding myself every day that there is beauty in every experience, no matter how harsh or great it is.
My children and my friends who have been apart of this amazing journey have shown me all different faces of beauty and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If there is any way you can help support communities, do it. Not only for you but for others who have almost nothing. It is completely worth it and THAT is the beauty of volunteering.
