By Kylie Verlinden-Kitchen, 2023-24 McCall MacBain International Fellow in Colombia
Currently, I’m living in Medellin Colombia learning Spanish. The other day I took an impromptu flight to another city called Bogota for the weekend. With ease, I booked my plane ticket to Bogota and reserved a bed in a hostel.
As I was on the plane to Bogota, I felt so immensely proud and impressed with myself. The younger version of myself who grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere Ontario, where the most interesting thing to ever happen was if a field caught on fire due to a malfunctioning combine, would’ve never believed what I am now accomplishing. I had only ever been on a couple of family trips to the Netherlands and Disneyland. Previously, I had no clue how to book a plane ticket or hotel. I had no clue how security and customs worked at an airport. Or how to call a taxi to even get to the airport in the first place. And yet here I was, casually flying to a different city in Colombia, South America, to visit for the weekend.
When I arrived at the airport in Bogota, I went to eat at MacDonalds because I suddenly had a craving for it after not eating at MacDonalds for more than two months. As I was eating my junior chicken combo, an older couple came and sat with me as there were no other free tables. I started chatting with them in Spanish, asking them about the city and later found myself that night, playing Tejo, a game common in Bogota where you throw rocks at a board of clay that has little explosives embedded in it, with the grandson and his friends of the older couple I had just meet at the MacDonalds.
Trying to sleep that night was impossible as I felt so amazed and mind blown with the day I had. Before this trip, I considered myself a very shy person and I didn’t feel comfortable doing things by myself and yet here I was, sparking up a conversation with strangers in a foreign language, after flying to a new city by myself. I have only been in Colombia for about two and a half months now and I feel that I have gained so much confidence and self-appreciation.
Not all my days are as cool and impromptu as the day I flew to Bogota. Some days are hard, and I feel that my Spanish is not very good and that I am not learning fast enough, or I feel a bit shy to go try something new.But then I remember how far I’ve come. I think about the version of myself that lived on the farm in southern Ontario. I think about my first Spanish class and how I didn’t know how to introduce myself or say good morning properly in Spanish. I think about the version of myself who didn’t like to go out unless I had a friend to accompany me.
If this is how much I have learned and gained in only two and a half months, I can’t even imagine how much I will continue to grow in every way after a full year of living in Colombia. I eagerly anticipate the myriad experiences and challenges awaiting me, confident that my growth will continue in ways beyond my imagination.
