Before the summer of eighth grade, I took a trip like never before. My school was offering a trip to Costa Rica, 10 days of exploring the country with my friends. For months we had meetings about what this trip would entail: zip lining, beaches, waterslides, and much more. I had traveled out of the country before, but only to resorts on beaches. I had never experienced the true culture of another country.
My family would take a big trip to Mexico every couple of years. The trips included driving from the airport to the resort, staying at the resort for a week, and then traveling back to the airport. The resorts included pools, waterslides, beaches, restaurants, and more. The food and drinks were unlimited, the food no different than any restaurant you would find in America. 10-year-old me thought this is what Mexico is. There are tourists and there are travelers. Tourists experience the pretty beaches, while travelers actually see what the country has to offer. For my entire life, I had been a tourist not immersing myself in the culture. I figured this was what my trip to Costa Rica would be, just in a different setting, but I was wrong. For the first time in my life, I became a traveler and immersed myself in the culture.
We flew into San Jose and started our journey. The trip was led by a tour guide who was native to the country. Our first stop was his home in the city. The drive was beautiful, populated with tree-covered mountain ranges and pinkish-purple skies like I had never seen before. Once we arrived downtown it was a little different. Everything was bright vibrant colors. The houses were pink, blue, and green, but there was something else different: everything was gated. From the ground to the roof were gated fences, and every home, and business, the same thing. While they still maintained the same colorful style, it was an unexpected thing to see. In the middle of what seemed like a paradise, the concern for crime was at an all-time high. A place that you envision as being this perfect place has real-world problems. It was jarring at first, I started to realize tropical places were not just beach vacations.
The first couple of days were spent exploring the most urban areas of the country. A lot of churches and other prominent religious artifacts were very present. It seemed to be that the buildings were maintained in the nicest conditions where the churches were. The hotels we stayed in varied in niceness, some had seen better days, while others were very nice, but one thing remained consistent. That thing was breakfast. Eggs, fruit, and gallon pinto were served. The location did not matter, nor did the number of Michelin stars at the restaurant, they all offered the same thing for breakfast. Gallo pinto is just rice and beans mixed, and I was surprised with how well it went with breakfast, but the one difference maker was the fresh fruit. Pineapples were everywhere and the unanimous decision was that they were the best pineapples that everyone had ever had.
As the trip went on, we did more tourist activities, which included zip lines and beaches. I started looking for things that set Costa Rica apart from other places. It was not just endless beaches and hotels, there was more to it. The specific tourist activities were great, and only people that fear heights do not like ziplines. The world’s longest waterslide was a quarter-mile down a mountain in a tube, which was definitely a new experience. Those things were just designed for tourists though. I appreciated visiting a pineapple farm more, seeing and learning about stuff that makes the country different than others. Costa Rica produces more pineapples than anywhere else in the world. Learning and seeing stuff that makes a country special is really what I took away from the trip.
After the trip, I spent more time thinking back to the start of it. For the first time in my life, I realized that these tropical countries are not just filled with fancy hotels and nice beaches, but quite the opposite sometimes. Finding similarities and differences in places around the world is now something I make sure I look for when visiting a different place. In subsequent trips to the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, and more countries in the Caribbean I was always on the hunt for what was special about the individual place.
Looking for those differences really comes into play when deciding where to go to school. I grew up in a decently sized city in a different state, and I decided that I did not want to stay in the same place for school. Then came the adventure of picking a school. While I wanted some similarities, I also wanted some differences, so it was about finding that balance. I went to a small high school, so I wanted to maintain that small school feeling. One difference I was looking for was a different city. For 14 years I took the same drive to school, passing the same landmarks, and seeing the same people, I wanted to get out and see different places as I had done in Costa Rica. So, where better than the middle of Ohio, where there is nothing but farm fields around.
Obviously, the farm fields are not what drew me to rural Ohio. It was the small town and the school. Before I toured a school, I would get a meal at one of the local restaurants. City Square Steakhouse was the best pre-tour meal that I had. So, while that has not transferred to Lowry, it still left a lasting impression on the city of Wooster as a whole. Then I started looking for things that made it stand out. One of the differences it had from other schools was the golf course right next to it. Over time I learned to look for things that are not widely advertised about a place, and the golf course was one of those things. I played golf in high school but knowing that I did not want to pursue the golf team, having a free golf course at one end of campus was the perfect option. I am sure some people will say academics is what sets Wooster apart from other schools, but each school has good professors and programs, and I was looking for what set it apart.
Ever since that trip to Costa Rica in seventh grade, I have always been looking out for what makes a place, person, school, or anything else different. The uniqueness of life is what makes it interesting. I learned not to judge a book by its cover, or initial interpretations of a place. You must dig deeper and find what is really special and different. I tried to carry that with me when picking a place to go to college.