I know you all clicked on this because of the title… so I guess I’ll give you a little explanation.
As most of you know by now, I landed in Costa Rica on the afternoon of January 26th. Well, the morning after I woke up with extreme throat pain, swollen lymph nodes, and tonsils that were larger than the waves in Jaco!!!! (or so it felt like). On only the second day being here I made my first (and hopefully last) trip to the doctor.
Let me tell you, the entire visit to the doctor was for sure a cultural shock, but I’m so thankful I was able to get an appointment so quickly. There was only one doctor working that day, but he was so nice and super helpful. Long story short, he examined me and diagnosed me with “Tonsilitis” (hence the blog title). He gave me some medicine to take and gave me some iodine and honey to gargle. I know, I know never in my life has anyone ever told me to gargle iodine and honey to cure a soar throat, but it seemed to work because here I am five days later and I feel so much better!
Okay as crazy of a story that is, if anyone were to get sent to the doctor that early into the trip we all know it would’ve been me….
Now I’m going to use this as an opportunity to transition into what I was originally planning on talking about, “finding the comfort within the discomfort.”
Buckle up everyone, it’s a long one.
Growing up in America, I have never had to experience an intense level of discomfort for a large period of time, and I think that’s because the littlest things that bring me “comfort” have surrounded me my entire life.
For example some things such as my family, my home, air conditioning, WiFi, food, and even clean water have been available to me my entire life. These are all things that seem pretty essential in life but are also things most people, including myself, take for granted.
If you were to ask me five years ago, I would have never thought something as simple as flushing your toilet paper down the toilet would not always be available to me in my day to day life. In many Central American countries flushing your toilet paper is not an option because of the strong effect it has on the septic system. Even just flushing one piece of toilet paper can clog the entire bathroom for a day, so instead we have to throw our toilet paper in the trash can.
I know that example is not meaningful for most people, but here something as simple as THAT has the largest effect. So while I do miss the comfort of flushing my toilet paper, out of respect for not only my host, but for Costa Rica as a whole, I am learning to find comfort with throwing it away instead.
Another example of something that I definitely take for granted back home is how easy it is to communicate with people. Almost everyone around me back home speaks english, and I have the comfort of knowing I can talk to anyone, describe how I am feeling, or tell stories with no issue. Here, for most people, english is not their first language, so already within my first week I have experienced the struggles within the language barrier. Thankfully, I took Spanish for a little over 10 years in school, and know enough to communicate on the surface level with people I meet.
Even though being able to communicate on the surface level is better than nothing, I will admit that I find discomfort in knowing I cannot connect with people on a deeper level without the use of my phone’s translation.
Now while the two situations I explained would USUALLY lead me to feel a sense of anger or distress, those are feelings I actually HAVEN’T felt. I think the reasoning for that is because of the immense amount of peace I HAVE felt while being here.
Despite all the cultural differences, language barriers, & immediate discomfort, God’s goodness is still so evident every single day. He uses instances such as the one’s I previously described to give me patience, and shift my entire mindset completely.
Actually, before coming on this trip, my dad gave me a little bookmark for my bible with the verse James 1:19 on it. I say this because that specific verse is one that has constantly been in my head this past week, and is one that is so relevant to what I just wrote about.
This verse says, “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” This is an example of how we as humans can and must be willing to step out of our comfort zone and open our ears, eyes, and hearts as our immediate reaction. When things don’t go our way or work out how we plan, we must be okay with that discomfort.
Instead of getting mad or complaining about things, I have learned to take time to be grateful for the opportunity to even be here in the first place and to constantly be surrounded in God’s peace.
As I end my blog post this week, I encourage every one of you to think about what things bring you comfort in life, and what are ways you can challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone. If you find yourself doing the same thing every single day BECAUSE it provides you the comfort you THINK you need, are you really living? I truly think it’s essential for us to find new opportunities and make the changes necessary in order to live our life to the fullest. If that means we must step out of our comfort zone, or at least take a few minutes everyday to be thankful for the little things that DO bring us comfort, I think that is so important.
If sometime this week or in the near future you find yourself in a state of discomfort, I challenge you to be slow to anger or frustration and instead think about how you can find your own sense of comfort within that discomfort.
Well…. I know that was A LOT, but it was definitely something I’ve been needing to/ wanted to write about for a while now!!!
Thanks for following along this far, until next time, BYEEEEE
-Cat
