In two weeks from today I will be boarding a plane to Costa Rica where I will be traveling by bus 41/2 hours to Puerto Viejo. I decided in early April that I would leave, with my three children in tow, to a place that I have dreamed of. This place has existed for quite some time. At times it is Costa Rica. Other times it isn't but the thought of being someplace else always brings me such a feeling of peace and happiness that I made the decision that right now was the right time to go.
Ever since I was in high school I have wanted to go to Costa Rica. I think I was in a junior or a senior. I had gone to a party with a friend and could not seem to get into the groove. Everyone was outside so I went inside the house and wandered downstairs into the den. I remember there was a sectional couch that stretched the whole length of the room and a gigantic big screen TV. I sat down and began watching something when a commercial came on. Suddenly before my eyes was a waterfall, magnificent in height so that the fall itself fell like a single stream surrounded by the leaves and bush high atop a ridge. All I could hear was water as it poured down into the pool below rushing past and then the screen faded to black. Only two words appeared "COSTA RICA". That was it. I knew then that I had to go. I had no idea that it would be 18 years later as a single mother with my 3 children ages 4,6 and 8.
I have never been to Costa Rica let alone Puerto Viejo but I am moving there with the intention of staying for one year. Currently I live in Berkeley California and as each day draws closer to our departure I grow more and more nostalgic for the moments I spend here, as if they were memories already. I have no idea what awaits us once our plane touches down in San Jose but the hope I have for the dreams I hold reassure me that a life worth living is choosing the life that I want to live.
