What I Learned

It’s been awhile since that last day in Cuba when I couldn’t imagine coming back to my life. I never wanted to leave and even now I find myself wishing that I was there and not here. It was three months of good times, hard times, truth, misunderstandings, love, happiness, tears, and sadness. It was up and down at the same time. Happy and sad simultaneously. It is a place of contradictions, of confusion and things that will never make sense, even to Cubans. I learned more than I ever could have imagined, formed bonds stronger than I ever thought I could, and found a piece of myself. I used to worry about what to wear, how I looked, how I acted, and was constantly self-conscious that I was doing it all wrong. Here, I had found a place where it doesn’t matter. You can wear what you want, eat what you want, act as yourself because as long as you do it with passion, it’s all good. I realized that life should never be based on the things we own and how great our job can be or how much money we can make, because happiness doesn’t exist there. Happiness exists in your family who will always be there, in your friends that keep you company and make your life more fun, in the people you meet who love you for who you are. Happiness exists in Cuba, sometimes it is a painful happiness, found through struggle and hunger, but it exists. They have almost nothing, they have little freedom, they have no hope, but they know how to have fun with simple things, how to be resourceful, how to laugh about the crazy and unfair things in life, and how to love.