Final Reflection Blog Post: Puerto Rico Service Trip Winter 2019

It’s been a little over two weeks since we first arrived in Puerto Rico. Reflecting on my experiences, I’m extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to travel to and to serve in Puerto Rico. Many of us came with little to no expectations about the trip, and yet we left with so many special and favorable memories. As such, I am itching to go back and to make some more. 

Known as the island of enchantment, at least for myself, I can say honestly that I have been enchanted with Puerto Rico. Not only was I charmed with its beautiful islands and biodiversity, warm sun, bright colors, and delicious cuisine, but it’s people’s spirit of resilience and of hope. This is the kind of spirit seemingly most inconspicuous on the island (in the sense, that it is something you experience, not something preached), yet nevertheless powerful in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria, one that has persisted even before. 

The world is our living classroom, at least one of them. Traveling, like in the case, is one of the best ways to learn about and experience the world and its peoples outside of a textbook or the media and how we can break down those barriers of (often negative) pre-conceived notions we may have. I traveled to Puerto Rico with certain assumptions that were deconstructed as I began to live (even shortly) where I served. Interacting with locals, I heard their stories. Storytelling is a powerful and important tool. One of the important lessons I recognized was to be wary of storytelling due to its power in provoking emotion and even inciting change.  Although it can be used for justice and liberations of people, it can also be utilized for the contrary. Specifically, we should be cautious about who is telling a story, and whose story they are telling. Their own? Someone else’s? 

As I stated before, I am grateful and very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to serve in Puerto Rico. From our in-house reflections to our service on the ground, I learned a lot, and also recognize that there is still much to learn and to do, not only in Puerto Rico or Paterson (where I from), but in the world. That sounds like a daunting task, I mean, it is. But as a collective, we must recognize that these efforts are generational. As those before us have laid a groundwork that we have used and modified to fit our own society's needs, so too do we keep on this fight for justice, laying our own foundations for further generations to adopt and shape for the liberations of all people. Let’s go Puerto Rico! (get it) Let's go all.