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With GIVE…

Written by: Rachel Watts

10/6/2014

You can venture

Everyone has roots. Whether they're planted in a small town, big city, or a place where walls and a roof are rare, we grow and shape around what we have been exposed to. We become accustomed to what we know, and become comfortable with what it is that holds our confidence. Growing is just that: becoming more knowledgable, finding comfort within our surroundings, and allowing our bodies to fill with confidence. The more places that are seen and the more cultures experienced, the more you grow.

I expected Nicaragua to be beautiful scenery and an exceptional place to show my efforts. Little did I know that two weeks there would begin to shape me as a person, while I have now begun to reach all-star levels of newly-found growth thanks to GIVE.

You can discover

I still keep in contact with some of my fellow GIVErs on almost a daily basis. Nicaraguan locals keep my Facebook messages active, and I am constantly checking on the progress GIVE has been making on their Facebook and Instagram. Through all of these priceless discoveries, the greatest one that I came across through this program is discovering myself. The experience transformed me as a person, and in some ways that are unexplainable.

GIVE immediately taught me to be myself and every aspect of the trip helped me to do that. After two weeks, my horizons are forever broadened. A snap of a finger and I acquired a new-found adrenaline, and a mind that has been opened endlessly. Positive and essential traits to lead a life fulfilled rushed to the surface, and I had no other option than to express them. I mean with 110% certainty that I expressed them and still continue to do so.

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You can dance

It's midday at the school worksite and I'm exhausted. Lingering heat and the sun beating down makes for quite the strenuous workday. I mosey over to Ernesto (a local who works with GIVE) and begin to help him with a two-person job. Both of us exhausted, we begin to dance.

We're in the middle of the worksite with only the sound of tools being beaten around and a generator running, and Ernesto and I begin to salsa in the midst of it all. Between our laughter and happy feet, I felt relief. Not from stress or from the work, but relief that bliss can be found and expressed even in the least ideal situation. Dancing was the ticket, and from then on I was seeking happiness, that is what I did. And I danced a lot.

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You can love

"One Love" has never made sense to me entirely until Nicaragua. An immediate connection with my fellow volunteers allowed thirty-two of us to become a close-knit family within days. All of us were welcomed to this foreign land with open arms and warm hearts. Locals who were initially complete strangers treated us GIVErs like family.

When flashing a smile to whoever was in sight, there was not an instance that I did not receive an even bigger one back. Laughing was key. Never have I shed so many tears from laughter with people I've only known for such a short amount of time. Whole-hearted love overwhelmed me as I fell in love with such a simple concept: love. Life is love.

You can GIVE

With bare hands, with your mind, with your heart. In whatever way, everyone has the ability to give. I did everything in my power to travel to Nicaragua to give back to these communities. Giving what I did was sweetly satisfying as I longed to do more. However, what Nicaragua gave me in return is immeasurable: a thirst of adventure, an eagerness to learn. It opened my eyes to different cultures, different people, and, really, just to life itself. My body is now bursting with the great things Nicaragua left behind and I have an immense yearning to spread it. It's a never-ending cycle, giving.

We do it purposely, unconsciously, with all of our might or a blink of an eye. It snow balls and that is what makes giving so remarkable: it proves that we are all in this together and that possibility is endless; it is what makes GIVE so remarkable.

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