I find it hard to believe that I am halfway through my project already! I am making it my mission to make the most of the remaining three weeks as this trip is truly becoming such a special and personal journey. 

The week had its challenges in a few ways, but I also feel it has been a week of great learning and development. To summarise the activities before I explore the theme of humility more, I spent the working days of the week filling in more information for the case I am creating, researching public-private partnerships and also the use of AI in healthcare. I then travelled to the Caribbean coast for the weekend, exploring national parks and beaches on a rented bike, as well as the jungle via a white-water rafting trip to return to my campus! I was truly enamoured by all the surrounding nature, and returned feeling very tired and somewhat sunburnt, but overall peaceful and ready to get back into my work on Monday. 

I’ve really enjoyed being in Costa Rica but at times it is difficult being so far away from all my loved ones and I spent the first few weeks trying not to let it cloud my time here, but it was still hard. This week I realised trying to shut down these emotions was not working, they kept rising up stronger. My solution instead greatly benefited from themes of humility. I was gentle with myself, and acknowledged that I am not invincibly independent — as a social and somewhat emotional person I do feel things deeply, and really value my relationships and support I normally have access to. It is no wonder that being removed from all of this was difficult! Instead of trying to maintain a narrative of ‘Oh I’ll be fine alone this is a great experience and I need to stop feeling sad for my home, I’m having a great time’ I let myself spend time actively being grateful for the past term at uni, reflecting on why I miss these people and places so much. Ultimately, letting myself release my guard of ‘This has to be the best experience ever!’ enabled me to understand the fluctuations in life, and appreciate how the ‘best experiences’ take many forms, similar to the idea in the prompt that ‘the world is vast, we are always learning’. 

Furthermore, I struggled in my work. Trying to lead a research project in a topic you feel unfamiliar with is no small feat! We faced the particular challenge this week that the stakeholders in the alliance need to internally approve some aspects of my research before we can continue with interviews. It was daunting to then take on the responsability of secondary research, doing my best to find as much information as I could alone. I found this to be a great mind-block initially. I’m so used to operating on a knowledge-base where I am the one learning from others, building my ideas on the safety net of existing theories and research. I felt lots of pressure when taking the lead and deciding what narrative I wanted to create. It was humbling too, coming up with ideas that I thought sounded good but ultimately were very biased by my experiences/my lack of experience in a corporate setting! I’ve learnt that learning has so many forms: although I have traditionally learnt in a very organised way with an obvious leader, when you are the leader it is important to learn in multiple dimensions. 

Furthermore, my weekend exposure to nature and a true ‘solo trip’ was a great reminder of humility for myself and this process of self-development. I saw such a variety of nature, and was reminded of the co-occurring trivial nature of being human as a mere segment of all this beautiful biodiversity alongside the power of destruction we have. I am a huge lover of adventure and the outdoors, and this weekend was the perfect reminder of why: I love remembering that there is always life, and that so much exists away from the stress of our man-made livelihoods. Whilst it is easy to get whisked away in the vast array of biodiversity here in Costa Rica, throughout the weekend I also felt myself yearning for England. I was reminded how grateful I was for all the nature I encounter every day: the rivers and lakes where I wild swim, the fields near my house that are just perfect for a family walk in any season, and the tree-lined paths I cycle on to get to Cambridge and Oxford. I really felt my privilege of getting to experience both this nature here in Costa Rica and the continuous stream in my everyday life. Nature is a current across the whole world, of course it is - it is the backdrop to all our livelihoods! I have really appreciated having humility here and being grateful that I am part of this bigger, evolving cycle.