I would like this post to be a personal thank you to the people I’ve met over the past few weeks. I have come to terms that I won’t write as heartfelt of a post as many of the girls on the trip, but I would like to thank you all for helping me learn so much which I have a passion for more than anything else. Never would I have thought I would’ve been a part of a team like this. On all previous teams I have been a part of I was always a leader of some form because of my experience, knowledge, or passion for hard work. There would always be some skillset I could offer that was unique to other team members. With our amazing team, I was not the most experienced, knowledgeable, or hardest worker. I was more often than not the least experienced, knowledgeable, or slowest worker.
Before leaving for Guatemala, I had never been West of the Mississippi River. I did not know any other languages. I was unsure of my personal strength and ability to overcome some of the challenges we would face in Guatemala. Over the past few weeks, I learned so much about travel and humanitarian engineering. Prior to leaving and while we were on flights many of my classmates helped me learn some Spanish and specific terms to be able to help the children with STEM projects. Many of you have helped me navigate airports and complete customs forms. I’ve received a lot of help reading Spanish in Pana (including some menus in English). I received a lot of good insight and advice on how to deal with illness. And most importantly you have all been so receptive to answering my hundreds of questions about all kinds of different things. I would not have had a successful trip and amazing experience if it were not for all of you helping me along the way.
One unique experience I had was being apart of the conversation with Miguel, the restaurant owner at the dinner with music. He shared many of his experiences with Rachel, Adithya, and I. He explained that Guatemala is not a poor country. They have oceans, mountains, volcanoes, lakes, amazing fruit and coffee, and plentiful natural resources. They live the life of millionaires. One of the biggest problems he identified is that some people have the mindset that they are poor and there is nothing they can do. His favorite thing about the United States was that many of us have the mindset that people can work hard and accomplish anything they want. He believed in the importance of inspiration. He wanted to go out and inspire his people.
Thank you all for leading me through my first international experience. Thank you all for teaching me so much about everything. Thank you all for having patience with me throughout the trip. Thank you all for being so resilient and displaying so much strength. Every day I continued to find so much inspiration from all of you. And the highest human act is to inspire.
Thank you, Matt Parsons