Teen Travel Blog

We want to say congrats to Kelly Tausk for winning our 2010 Summer of a Lifetime Essay Contest.  We were so impressed with her submission that we wanted to share it with the world!  See for yourself why Kelly was a clear choice for expressing the essence of an ARCC adventure:

“Always Do What You’re Afraid to Do”    
by Kelly Tausk, Costa Rica Service Adventure

During my junior year of high school, I did something most teenage girls have probably never done: I fell in love with a man 187 years my senior. It started in my English class with an assignment to make a greeting card using an aphorism by a Transcendentalist writer. While assembling the project, I connected with Ralph Waldo Emerson – through his words, thoughts, and beliefs – and chose one of his aphorisms, “Always do what you are afraid to do,” for my card. I have always had a passion for inspirational quotes, so Emerson’s words were constantly in my mind; I was just waiting for a chance to apply them.  

Months later, I left for a service trip to Costa Rica, happy I could bring a piece of Ralph with me in the form of Portable Emerson. My group and I spent the first two weeks participating in service activities, including teaching English to schoolchildren, helping with a sea turtle conservation project, and building a water tank in a remote village. During those two weeks, I did many things my family still doesn’t completely believe I did: I slept in a room with scorpions, swam in a lagoon with nocturnal alligators, and woke up daily to the roaring and grunting of howler monkeys. To conclude the trip, my group and I ended up at a beach camp where we could surf the Pacific Ocean. There I was, a Midwestern girl living next to the ocean, surfing by day and camping on a beach by night.

We spent the first day close to the shore, adjusting to the pattern and feel of surfing. On the second day, everyone in my group was challenged to try the big waves far out into the ocean. Some of my friends chose only to watch while others wiped out constantly and often disappeared for seconds at a time, swallowed by the waves. I stood on the beach, surfboard resting on my head, sand in my toes, Bob Marley songs stuck in my head – so cliché, but entirely true. Suddenly, a rush of thoughts flooded my head as I was caught between daring to take on the big waves and taking the easy way out with the little ones. As I considered surrendering to my fears, I remembered this quote: “Always do what you are afraid to do.” Intuitions aside, I swam out to the biggest waves and embraced the challenge. Inevitably I wiped out many more times than I succeeded, but the thrill of tackling the big waves compensated for all the wipe-outs.

It took many days of Costa Rican “Pura Vida” lifestyle and quite a few adventures for me to fully appreciate Ralph’s words; we really should always do what we are afraid to do – amazing things can happen just by taking those chances. As Søren Kierkegaard once said, “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” Here I was, losing my footing – both metaphorically and literally – without a care in the world for anything except the exhilaration of it all. I believe everyone should experience what it is like to expand his or her comfort zone. After all, we might lose our footing, maybe even wipe–out and have to fight the waves back out again, but it’s all worth it to catch that one wave that carries us back to shore with new realizations and the stories everyone only half-believes.

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