Asian Invasion

Tomorrow I leave The Philippines and head to Mexico and I can't believe that it went by so fast. I made it. I mean I knew that I would but to actually be on the other side of these five weeks is just unreal.

So many ups and downs, so many trial and tribulations, so many adventures. I live a life full of adventures and tribulations and it's quite the life.

Being able to go visit an indigenous tribe in Puerta Princesa and going to the underground river again was just incredible. My experience last year in the Philippines was great but I was so caught up in my culture shock that I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. This year I was really able to just focus on the experience and I feel as if I got so much more out of it this time.

I grew a lot as a person these last five weeks, I'm not exactly sure how I changed as a whole but things feel different something about me is different.

One day on our community service we went to this site where we spent the day with these really awesome kids at this school named Talaudyong. While we were at the school the kids took us to this gorgeous beach and wanted us to swim with them but the majority of us didn't have swimsuits. We ended up just swimming in our clothes and it was one of the most simple and surreal experiences for me.

I was always the person that like didn't want to get her hair wet and never would have jumped in a pool with my clothes on. But there I was, fully dressed, in the ocean, playing with these kids and not focusing on anything but the feel of the water on my skin and the twinkle in their eyes.

Life here has changed me, so many things I guess have changed me, but life in UWP really has a way of causing almost immediate change. The rain smells different, dirt isn't as gross, sleeping on the floor in a room with 100 other people is a welcomed bonding time.....life is just different here.

Be around people who bring out the most in you....work for a company that demands the most from you...always push yourself to be the most. Life here has changed me and is pushing me to pull the most out of everything, especially myself. I'm almost always out of my comfort zone and that's such a wonderful feeling to me, to always feel like I'm pushing myself. The most, that's what I want to get out of everything...the absolute most.