Mondays With Eric: Saying Yes

 Hey Everyone!

Hope all is well, and all free flowing.

Today I want to share a travel story about a time when I was studying abroad in Costa Rica. One where I learned the power of a three lettered word, and by saying it can create endless of opportunities.

It all began at a Thursday night out, where a student at my university, who soon became one of my closest friends in Costa Rica, pulled me aside from the rest of the party and asked me if I wanted to go to a place with him and a group of friends to spend the weekend over in a new area. I said Yes, before even knowing the location. When he told me, the place went out one ear right out the next. He told me to be ready at 9 AM to take a bus to this place.

So I woke up at 8 AM after a long night out. I began to pack, not really knowing what to pack. I ended up packing an extra shirt, shorts, basic toiletries, and swimming trunks for a weekend trip. (I’ve always been known to under pack in every situation, and this one was no different). Me and my soon-to-be-friend Austen set forth on this bus ride with nothing but strangers who spoke a language I had no prior knowledge of speaking.

The bus ride was a 6 ½ hour bus ride, which had a boat ride in the middle of it. The boat ride was where I met the rest of the group. We finally arrived at night and not having any phone service, finding the hostel turned out to be a massive process. But I found a pizza place and having a slice myself, which kept me pretty occupied.

Honestly, from the time when we arrived and the time we were beginning to leave, I hardly remember. The middle of this story didn’t stand out to me too much, as the days were mostly spent at the beach. All I remember in the middle section of this story is when I was feeling lonely/homesick for the first and only time in my entire trip), and a beach dog came up to me and sat right next to me until my friends came back.

I’m going to fast forward through the end of the story, that began with us nearly missing our 30-minute late bus to the town over, so that we could catch another bus which would take us home. In between those two bus trips we ate lunch. I was asked by one of the girls, “You’re coming with us, right?”

  “Yeah, I’m coming” I said, not knowing what the next experience was upcoming. All I knew was that our bus to go back to San Jose, Costa Rica was arriving in just a few hours. So, we went into the Jungle. I asked, “Where are we going? What are going to see? Our bus is just arriving in a few…”

I was cut off by a girl that I met on that Friday, and she said “You’ll see, I promise it’ll be worth it.”

            So, I embraced the moment fully. I followed the human-made trail, surrounded by ginormous trees, that I’ve only ever seen in movies like Tarzan. Then, the trail just stopped, and it led to a river. So, we jumped from rock to rock. I felt like it was straight out of a movie. If all else failed, we could just follow the river back.

            There was part of the trail, if you want to call it that. On the side of the river, there were some rocks, with a rope on the wall next to it to give you support. We kept going and going.

            Then, I heard people. A lot of people.

            There it was. One of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen. A waterfall. My first time ever seeing one in person. It was breathtaking. A hidden beauty completely hidden by the jungle around it. How did they know it was here? Did they know it was here or did we just get lucky?  I looked around my group and noticed that they were all wearing swimsuits. Clearly not getting the memo, I went behind a nearby tree away from the crowd and changed into mine. I grabbed my GoPro and jumped in. We swam for a little bit. Then my newly found friend Austen, the person who invited me to the group, said that we should jump off the cliff, right next to the waterfall that everyone else was jumping off of.

            So, we did. One by one we jumped off a 10-15-foot ledge into the water, that seemed like it was a mile deep. We swam for about an hour or so, and just as we were about to leave. We saw an 8-10-year-old boy began climbing up the waterfall. Starting at the side, then climbing through the waterfall, all the way to about 50 feet in the air. He screamed, “PURA VIDA” and jumped and hit the water in a pencil dive the position. The crowd went completely silent.

            He came back up and the crowd roared.

Feeling inspired, I looked at my friend Austen and asked, “Wanna do it?”

            So, we began swimming over to the side of the waterfall. A guy was explaining to us in Spanish, on how to do it. Me, not knowing any Spanish, just nodded my head and smiled. So, I began to climb it. I was about 10 feet above and looked down for the first time and saw straight rock. Knowing if I were to fall here, I would certainly break a bone. I couldn’t reach a point with my leg where the person before me could. So, I put all the working out I did before this trip into work and did one pull up to a better ledge.

            We began making our way towards the waterfall. We were about 25-30 feet above the water and were ready to make the leap. Austen jumped first, and successfully did it. Just before I was about to leap, I put my hand in the waterfall. The waterfall started falling a lot hard and got a lot bigger. It felt like I was in a movie. I looked down at everyone all just staring at me. Everything was so loud, yet so quiet at the same time. The distance to the water got a lot longer. I took a deep breathe in and counted down 3…2…1.. and I jumped. I looked down at the water below me and splash.

            I did it, I jumped off my first ever waterfall. A million thoughts ran through my head of pure excitement and joy. I never had ever done anything like that before. I said Yes to the unknown and this is what it brought me. I remained present, with zero fear. I had faith. I didn’t even know where I was in Costa Rica, or who I was with. But none of that mattered. I reflected on this my entire 7-hour trip back home, as I mostly sat by myself. Just thinking.

            Nearly two years have passed since this happened. I now know where we went that weekend, Santa Teresa and the waterfall is known as “Montezuma Waterfall”. My host mom’s son-in-law lived there and described it as, “One of the most life-changing places.” Which, safe to say, I experienced. I can truly say that this was my VERY first thrill-seeking experience, and the first time where I stepped completely into the unknown. The people I met on that trip, whether they knew it or not, inspired me (even if I didn’t remember their names). Strangers are just friends that you have not met yet.

I know that this is how I want to spend my life: to be in the present moment, to turn strangers into friends, and to have life-changing experiences, then reflect upon them. This entire weekend I wasn’t thinking about what was coming next or what had just happened, I was just in a complete state of bliss. I completely surrendered to the flow of life, holding zero expectations of what was to come. Being present is something I learned in meditations, but something that I truly didn’t embody until this moment. From the members of my group that weekend to the groups that we met, that traveled their entire lives, who simply inspired me in every shape and form, caused me to feel a shift in my own consciousness.

            The lessons I drew from this is how a simple “Yes” will present you a potential of endless opportunities, while a “no” will always keep you in the same place. To think that if I had said “No” to the trip or never asked to take a giant cliff jump off a waterfall, I may have never experienced the “thrill” that life brings. I may have never been put onto this path that I’m currently on.

A reminder to remain present keeping an open mind and heart, and when opportunities arrive to say yes to them because that’ll create an endless potential of opportunities that you can’t even imagine yet. Even if the opportunity doesn’t turn out in the way that you thought, it will still make for one hell of a story.  

Wishing the best,
Eric