"Do More"

Since I've been in Costa Rica, I haven't been wearing many t shirts because no one here does. However, yesterday I wore my GV wrestling national champ t shirt (naturally because my t shirt collection consists mostly of wrestling shirts) and my host mom read the front: "Do More" and asked me what it meant. 

It took me a minute to answer, I knew what it meant to the wrestling team: putting in the extra time and extra work to be better and do more for your team and yourself. To embody a championship lifestyle. 

What "Do More" meant to me was something different, I may not be a wrestler but I am doing more for myself. I am here is Costa Rica, in a place where I know absolutely a small amount of people and barely know the language... well enough to get by anyway... I left my family, boyfriend, and friends behind to go to a school 3,000 miles away for 120 days. This is something many don't have the courage to do and I pride myself in that. 

It's not easy to leave, especially since I've created a nice life in Iowa and at grand view university. It feels weird not attending classes, football games, wrestling practices, and all the other fun fall activities. But I came here to better myself. This trip was about me and figuring out who I am as a person... Afterall, you don't truly know yourself unless you're thrown into a foreign country where you're forced to thrive. 

So my way of "Doing More" is coming here and bettering myself. Though it's a phrase that may not have the same meaning to the wrestling team as it does to me. You bet your ass I'll be back for spring semester  and continue doing more.