Sometimes you see a sunset that radiates the brightest shades of red and yellow, or you see the bluest and clearest of oceans and are reminded of how beautiful this world can be. Other times, you meet a smiling bus driver or bond with a group of people over something as trivial as an old television show, and you think the same thing. Finding beauty in those picture-perfect sceneries and magical adventures is pretty easy, but I've recently found that the truest, undiscovered beauty that life has to offered can be found in so many places. It's relative to each person, what can be considered wonderful and deserving of the term "beautiful". For me, while studying abroad in Costa Rica, I have found beauty in some of the most unexpected places. Here are some of the beautiful things that I found.
- The rain that begins out of nowhere, drenching us all during a friendly soccer game.
- The older man who works a little shop on the street corner, who always waves and greets me with a "!Buenas!"
- The intense hike that ended up being hours longer than the guide said it would.
- The Chaco tan I have that gets more noticeable each day.
- A little salamander that finds his way into the house and keeps the bugs away.
- My eight year-old host sister who shyly asked me to brush her hair for her last night.
- The lack of Wifi available in most hostels that forces us to put our phones away.
- The rice and beans that we are fed almost every day, but I somehow still can't get enough of.
- The sound of constant chattering and laughter of the close-knit family that inhabits my temporary home.
- The stars that I could see on a pitch-black beach because my friends and I couldn't get that bonfire to work.
These are some of the most beautiful things I've been lucky enough to experience. I now see that to find beauty like this, I don't have to look harder, just differently.
If you want to get more out of each day, I challenge you to look beyond your typical perception of beauty to find something new. This can be done by breaking your daily routine and doing something different, such as taking a drive down a road you've never been on or taking a walk through a park you usually pass by. Go a day without social media, instead focusing on the people and things that are occurring around you.
Meet people you wouldn't normally meet- go volunteer at a food bank or nursing home. Strike up a conversation with a grocery store cashier or the person next to you on the bus. Use your strengths in a second language or your artistic or athletic talents to connect with someone new, especially someone from a different background. It's amazing how much you can learn so much from cultures different from your own. See life through a different lens, you may be surprised at what you find.
So much beauty is out there, it's just about choosing to see it.
