After spending the two weeks abroad in Costa Rica, I felt very fresh; reason being I was eating healthier, moving a lot more, spending more time outdoors, enjoying nature, and spending time with business owners who were passionate about how they were impacting their community and not just worried about maximizing shareholder value. Costa Rica turned out to be a very special place where family is the cornerstone of living when it comes to most of the population. With multi-generational homes with newly built floors for every generation, there was something very wholesome about seeing grandparents spend quality time almost every day with their grandchildren, children coming in for dinner time to time just to catch up about life, parents supporting their children’s dreams, and having that safety net if all else fails. In theme with my first blog, I do feel that this was very similar with many cultures around the world, especially the eastern world where my family originated.
Like many things in America, its easy to forget how processed food should be rare, nature is something humans need, exercise is part of the human lifestyle, business is an opportunity to do something for the greater good and family is superpower not a limiting factor; and so my two weeks in Costa Rica jogged my memory and reminded me of those important pillars of life for me.
I do think many of the businesses that we visited in Costa Rica in a way embody those principles of helping the environment, community, and overall human development, even in the most incremental ways. The key similarity among most of the businesses we visited was that they all had unique stories and reasons for becoming who they are, just like we as humans have very unique stories and life experiences that shape who we are.
Overall, our study abroad trip is Costa Rica was definitely something that turned out to be very impactful, and was a great way to meet some amazing individuals in an amazing country.