Despite my "Aventuras" in Spain being one of the most challenging chapters of my life, it was also incredibly special. Learning a second language has been the one of the best decisions of my life. It has opened so many doors for me, and I've never stopped using it. From giving tours in Spanish of Dodger Stadium in LA, to teaching Spanish in Washington, DC and now, using Spanish to communicate with a variety of communities at my current job, I can't emphasize enough how important this "accidental" major has been to my career. But I do have one regret. I have never fully immersed myself in the language since that rocky semester in 2008.
So, when I got an email through some TFA contacts inviting me to apply for a professional development conference in Mexico, I was thrilled. An application process was involved, and I was accepted with a generous grant that would fly me to Mexico for four days to engage in a conference with other young non-profit leaders called "El Arte de Dar: Ladrillo Por Ladrillo" (The Art of Giving, Brick by Brick.) I peer pressured some other TFA friends to apply, and they were also accepted. We were so excited!
But as the week of the conference approached, I started feeling apprehensive. I remembered all those moments in Spain where I felt so lost and confused. I remembered a tearful breakdown my first week in the hotel, and missing classes and even a FINAL EXAM because I never quite understood what was going on. I thought about how hard it was to scrap by then, when I was at the peak of my Spanish learning. That was when I was 20 years old. Now I'm nearly 26. How was I going to make it through this week?!
What I didn't account for was everything else that has changed me as a person in the last six years, and how much I've grown since I was that timid student stepping out of her comfort zone for the first time. I remember our professors encouraging us to make friends with the young local Spaniards, telling us it would be the best way to enjoy our time in the country. Ugh, I wish I was mature enough then to have taken their advice then, because after this trip, I realize what I was missing out on the whole time.
In Mexico, I met young Latinos from all over the world. Participants arrived from Spain, Cuba, Miami, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico, and many other places. Everyone there was enthusiastic, kind, passionate and so much fun. And to my relief, I was able to dive right in to speaking Spanish without too much pain at all! It was so invigorating to dust off and actually use the language I worked so hard to learn for four days straight, day and night! One moment that really struck me as special was making friends with participants from Brazil. For them, Spanish was also a second language, and I was taken aback by the fact that we were able to communicate despite not knowing anything at all of each other's native tongue.
Besides the thrill of making so many new friends and learning about their countries, their lives and their non-profits, the conference itself was a really valuable experience that would have been fantastic in any language. We had typical "retreat"-style leadership and trust exercises, and there were also excellent sessions on topics like personal branding, or how religion influences our work in the non-profit sector. Best of all, conference participants got the opportunity to partner with a Mexican non-profit called "Ayudame, soy Tambien Mexicano." (Help me, I'm a Mexican too.) It is a Habitat for Humanity type non-profit in Mexico that works to provide sustainable housing for some of Mexico's most poor.
We spent a full day hauling adobe bricks and building two homes alongside families in rural Mexico (about 3 hours outside of Mexico city). The power of this day is something I'm still processing. This is the first time I have truly witnessed what life is like in the "third world." No water, no electricity. No medical care. No nothing! It felt both powerful and hopeless to work in this community, due to the vastness of the crisis I witnessed.
I returned home fully exhausted, yet fully thrilled with my experience last week. My only regret is that, apparently, speaking Spanish is STILL too mentally taxing for me to handle gracefully, as somewhere between the bus from the hotel and my arrival in DC, I lost my digital camera. Not entirely surprising, but I was mad at myself all the same. So the pictures below are thanks to the beauty of social networking, and the talents of my new friends!
Hasta pronto, todos. Paz y Amor!
A special thanks to the Schusterman Foundation for sponsoring the trip!
