The Pre-Travel Jitters
Today is the day before I, along with Nick and Jocelyn, head off to Cochabamba, Bolivia to work with Moscoso Arquitectura. As of right now I am mainly feeling anxious about the trip itself. With all of the different layovers, my biggest fear is missing a flight or just experiencing something unexpected during the trip. Along with this there is the added bonus that I have never been away from home for such a long period of time. I think saying goodbye to my friends and family for so long is going to be a challenge in itself. But I hope an opportunity like this will not be clouded by my fears. So in order to deal with this I am hoping to just take each day as it comes and not worry about what I cannot control. I have also set up an international data plan that will at least allow me to call my parents every once and a while to hear their voices.
With my share of fears I am also very excited about the experience as a whole. Being able to experience Bolivia and learn about a subject I love so much is going to be amazing. After researching more of Mario Moscoso’s work, I am ecstatic to learn more about his thought process directly from him and see his work firsthand. Even today, my dad asked me more about my placement and decided to google everything for himself. Both my parents had the best reactions to Moscoso Arquitectura’s work with them even asking if they could come visit at some point during my trip. The different buildings and organic design is absolutely breathtaking and just looking at the pictures is pumping me up to get there already. The best part is that I know everything I learn there will be useful in my future career helping people in different countries.
And in terms of what I hope to learn about myself, I mainly want to see how I deal with the whole being away from home for so long. At the moment it really is one of my biggest concerns with the trip and something that I have really struggled with my whole life. To a certain extent I feel like if I am able to make it through this trip, I will be able to do a lot more than I ever thought I could. I think I am a lot stronger mentally and emotionally than I give myself credit for and going through this trip will hopefully make that more apparent. All in all, I am ready for this trip and jazzed to get it started!
