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Bridge Year Costa Rica – Fall 2025
Sponge Lena
I arrived in San Isidrio del General, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, my place of residency for nine months, tired. Longish flight, long bus ride, you get the gist.
Then throughout orientation, our late nights, early mornings and jam packed schedule left me spent as well.
Recently, with early mornings for my internship and full evenings with my host family and calls home, I have found myself weary, again.
I am no stranger to sleepiness. high school had me pushing late nights to finish chemistry homework and early mornings for club meetings. So, I have continued with my life in Costa Rica because being tired is ok. It’s what I am used to. Besides, here is a little different. I might never come back to Costa Rica, and so, even tired, I have to soak up every opportunity and experience like a sponge.
However, it feels as if I am a really bad sponge. Less once in a lifetime experiences and more everyday routine.
My identification with a poorly designed sponge started during the first couple weeks with my host family. I had no idea what the new family dynamic was gonna look like, no idea what I could do in the area, and no idea what I wanted to do. I also had lots of free time, but no plans to fill them up.
I felt like this amazing opportunity was given to me and I was wasting it sitting in my house, struggling to connect with my host family. I didn’t know where to begin and of course, I was tired.
But through challenges you grow, so I pushed myself. I asked my host parents questions and went out to hang out with my friends. Even if I was tired, doing nothing is the enemy of challenge and therefore growth.
However, even my plans started to feel insufficient. I hung out with my friends at our Bridge House, wondering if there was something more “Costa Rican” I could be doing.
It’s weird though because I wanted to hang out with my friends. I have wanted to do the things I fill my free time with: going to the gym, crocheting, reading, baking. Still, I felt like I was wasting time.
One day, just like most pent up emotions, it felt too much. Running up the hill I live on, I was calling my parents, explaining my feelings with tears in my eyes, but still plugging along up the hill.
My dad, deadpan, asked me how I couldn’t be doing enough. I was literally running through the Costa Rican countryside, while talking to your parents. What else is there to do?
Then my mom chimed in and said she was so proud of me for everything I have already done.
After a couple of heavy breaths and heavier steps (the hill literally never ends) I realize they are right.
I have done so much, I challenge myself everyday, and it’s ok to not do everything as well. Not every moment of my gap year will be glamorous or extremely challenging.
Any little challenge is a good challenge, and to expect everything I do to be hard means the tiredness that I am so accustomed with will be overwhelming.
I am in no way saying that I should stop trying to find interesting and hard things to do, but I shouldn’t expect everything I do to be new. Just because I am in Costa Rica doesn’t mean my whole life changes. There is a balance between pushing myself and routine. There is a balance between activity and rest. It is ok to take that rest as well. Sponges can’t soak more water if they are full.
