I was the 5th child to leave for college, but my parents were still worried about me. Parents. I traveled to Scotland for Spring Break, so they’re getting used to me traveling a bit, but they believe I’m doing too much. After reading travel alerts about Ecuador and health risks, they warned me that I’d be “putting my life in danger”, but that’s a part of life. You can only plan and prepare so much before you have to let it run its course. Obviously, there’s a bit of anxiety concerning getting sick, but the health center has properly prepared me for almost everything coming my way.
I’m also terrified of insects. It isn’t unusual to hear me screaming for someone to kill one or frozen in fear. Knowing that practically harmless insects frighten me so much made me want to overcome this fear, and I’ve already noticed how comfortable I am around some of them. This study abroad program has helped with overcoming this fear, but I’m a bit nervous about how much bigger they’ll be in Ecuador. I also am interested in disease and vaccines, so understanding their history and anatomy will better equip me for the future. I also enjoy speaking Spanish and excited to learn some new slang. I changed my phone and laptop settings to Spanish to become familiar with seeing and reading Spanish daily. I haven’t taken a Spanish class in 3 years, so we’ll see how this goes!
