Today was the last full day of our trip before we come home. Today we did a lot of reflecting on the trip, from looking back at the beginning of the trip and evaluating how we as new leaders have changed, and bettered ourselves from this terrific experience. We started off today with the usual breakfast, everyone was tired but looking forward to what this day had to bring and what it would bring after it was over.

After a filling breakfast, we had a morning meeting of what we would do today and then talked about how we would do a lot of reflecting activities for the last day. This started with us making maps about our trip, with five big moments, a lesson we had learned, and a person that had inspired us. Everyone did different drawings and showed either their artistic skills or their writing skills. Then we did a different activity in which we would write on these three large poster papers. These were titled “STOP”, “START”, and “CONTINUE”. Everybody wrote on these separate pieces of large paper, and we chose one, from someone else, that we really took to heart, and we would discuss about that quote. Then we did the largest “BIG LOVE” from this whole trip, where we all put our names on a separate piece of paper, and then passed it to other people about something they appreciated about each other. This was a good twelve minutes, which really brought smiles to many people, especially those who felt that they were under appreciated. We then filled out letters to our donors, and that lasted a while.

We had lunch which brought us soup and rice. The soups appearance was appetizing and the taste was divine. After lunch, we had free time, in which most of the kids went out to get treats and snacks for their tutoring classmates for a goodbye fiesta! After that everyone got dressed for their classes and celebrated two weeks of teaching students, adolescents to grown-ups. Everyone was sad to say farewell to all their students, but every part of it was fun and enjoyable. Today was filled with joy, tears, and relief. The journey here has ended; we all made it, the trip ends today; but the friends we made and the close bonds we have made, and the lessons that we have learned in the Dominican Republic will always stay with us no matter what happens after this trip.

The beginning had the biggest impact on us; being away from home was a big change for most of us, and now we have spent sixteen days in a foreign country; now we’re ready to hug our parents,and see our loved ones and friends after such a long time being separated. This trip was a big step for most people, and for some people it was a leap, but sometimes in life we need to take a leap, of faith, and get out of our comfort zones. It will allow us to continue growing as human being, and now we can come back home with this growth.

• Sasha MacCluskey (Leader of The Day)