Day 13 – Final Reflection ! (No. 2)

Hello to all my name is Simonetta, a rising senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Today I was the official last student leader of the day. To be honest, I was a little nervous to be the last leader with how great all the others were this whole trip, but today turned out amazing. A highlight of Day 13 was how easygoing the whole group was even though today’s schedule was a little hectic and changed quite a bit. I really enjoyed being a leader of the day because it made me realize I have to step out of my comfort zone more often so I don’t miss out on opportunities or regret my decisions later on. But moving on to what we did for Day 13!!!

So I woke up pretty early at 5:30 AM and then woke everyone up at 6:00 AM. From there we all had our final breakfast at Villa Tableña and then expressed our gradititude to our wonderful cook Ilka for making us such amazing food the whole trip. After that we quickly grabbed our travel journals and prepared for our 2 hour program seminar which focused mainly on the whole group’s final reflection. In the seminar we did activities that showed people’s appreciation towards the other glimpsers and also moments we all enjoyed over the duration of the trip, which everyone agreed was a really nice activity even though it was kinda long. The meeting ended around 9:15 AM which gave us 15 minutes to grab all our stuff from our rooms and double check that we had everything because we had to be at the bus at 9:30 AM fully ready to leave. From there, we drove on the bus for 2 and a half hours. During this time it was full of naps, vibing to songs, and chatting among other things. Then we stopped at Va y Ven to have our lunch. Some people got pizza, others got chicken, and most of us bought some snacks for the rest of the bus ride ahead. From there we hopped on the bus to drive 3 and a half more hours and finally got to the Panama Canal at around 3:20 PM. When we were there we saw the ferry pass through the canal and even got to watch a 3D movie all about the history of the place we were visiting. We also shopped at the souvenir shop and got some snacks before watching the movie. Finally we got back on the bus and drove about 20ish minutes to the hostel we stayed at the first night – it was coming to a full circle for all of us. We all got assigned rooms and room mates and overall just got comfortable for the last night in Panama. Last but definitily not least, we had Domino’s for dinner. Right after that we had our last nightly meeting where I passed the torch to GGL Dina. Overall it was a truly spectacular day, and I’m so happy to have met all these people throughout this trip.

The biggest lesson I learned from this day was adaptability is key and always check in and make sure everyone is ok as well as on the same page. I also learned stepping out of your comfortable zone is ok sometimes and even beneficial. Being leader of the day inspired me to work harder to achieve my goals and continue to use the skills I have learned in the 2 weeks I’ve been in Panama.

Moving on, this is me closing out for today and saying that we’ll see you all tomorrow at SFO!!!

P.S. to family:

Love you so much Mongo tell Nana I love her a ton as well see you all soon XOXO.