First Step

One of the more difficult aspects of life is the opportunity to start something new. Whether it’s starting up a new hobby, or starting a new relationship. Starting something seems to always come with certain pressures. You have a first impression to think about, whether or not you’re truly capable of a certain task, or if you even want to try to start. Once you take a first step into something you are expressing how important it is to you. So, this is me taking my first steps to make this trip and this part of my life start. During this process, I’m trying to figure out the reason for this trip. Why specifically Peru and why do I feel this need to travel internationally for 6 weeks.

It really started with my inability to help a person I cared dearly for. During Covid, once vaccines became available to the majority of society, I was getting a vaccine when I recognized someone from my university who was also trying to get a vaccine. Their primary language is Spanish and while I am not fluent I enjoyed speaking with them in Spanish. Once I saw them at the vaccine tents, I approached them to catch up. When I walked up, I noticed they were distressed but trying to play it off. I realized that they couldn’t understand how to fill out the paperwork to get the vaccine and that no one had a form in any other language other than English. Because the medical team was only asking for basic information, I was able to piece by piece try and help them fill out the forms but they deserved so much more than my botched-up pronunciations of medical terminology. This was not the first time I had seen this type of anxiety in a medical setting. The very next semester I was enrolled in Spanish For Medical Personnel and talked to others about immersive programs that could be used in a medical setting. This first step has been something I have been working towards. I am excited to be fully immersed in Peru in a medical program where I will be both learning Spanish and serving others.