Being Inspired: My Last Week in Argentina

A month has passed too quickly! I just posted a video montage of photos I have taken here in Buenos Aires (definitely check it out!) and I find myself so emotional while typing out this journal post. Well, admittedly I have been emotional over this whole trip. There has not been one moment where I have not felt gratitude and wonder for where I am now, even in the hard moments. It seems impossible to fully put into words how I have felt but here I try. In this blog post I wanted to focus and reflect over the feelings of inspiration I have received from being abroad.

For one as an extrovert and a perpetual curious person, meeting new people and learning about others’ lives brings me so much happiness. This past month I have met so many people that I would not have met otherwise, and our lives coming together as it did has brought me so much joy. My host family, Mabel, Flor and Paola, the three women who I could not have had the same experience with if it wasn’t with them. The people in my study abroad program, and the people in my University from Buenos Aires but also other parts of the world. They have all made my experience what it was. And they all inspired me!

One time in particular, a core memory of this trip, is being at the park with my friends, all of us speaking Spanish, but also mixed in were our own native languages too. English, Portuguese, French, and even Korean. I looked at everybody and was grateful life led us here from our different experiences and that we all shared the language of Spanish. This inspired me in so many ways. As an aspiring linguist it inspired me to learn more languages besides English and Spanish. As a future traveler of the world it also inspired me. Hearing about my friends’ experiences, their passions, and how they ended up in Argentina, sparked a fire in me more than any time before, and the world felt smaller then, like traveling around the globe felt much more accomplishable than ever before. All of a sudden I was making plans to visit my friends in the future in their own home countries, and even returning to Buenos Aires to see my host family again. I knew studying abroad would change me in so many ways, but I couldn’t have imagined the ways in which I have been inspired.

Though my program has ended I find myself doing this last blog post in Mendoza, Argentina. A city in Argentina nestled by the border of Chile and the Andes Mountains. It is famous for its wines, so as I was so inspired by the people I have met, I decided to go on a solo trip here before I head back home to the States. It has been three days in Mendoza, and I am so glad I was able to travel outside of the city of Buenos Aires and see another part of this amazing country. I have met other travelers here at the hostel I am staying at and with one of these new friends I even went paragliding and visited a popular hot spring in the mountains here! I truly marvel at the experiences I have had thus far in Argentina and the people I have been able to share these moments with. I was just a girl from Texas who had never been out of the country before, but now within this past month I feel inspired to become so much more than that! I will be trilingual, I will have been to many more countries and I will continue to search for such experiences that develop me as a person, but also allow me to connect with others as I have here.