One does not mature with age, but with exposure to light and experience with the dark. In other words, one cannot understand something deeply enough until their exposed to it firsthand or experience it. Specifically what do light and darkness symbolize? I ask myself the same question every day and still can’t find a simple answer. When you break it down, it’s the understanding of life. How it’s a privilege and a gift that’s taken for granted more times than one would think. It’s not something that can be held, or be kept permanent. With life, brings lots of questions but no real answers. Yet within it, is this extreme beauty that’s so unique, it can only be understood when exposed to light and experience with the dark. It wasn't until last summer when I put the pieces of my own life together. The puzzle is now complete but it’s understanding the puzzles meaning, which will take a lifetime. By experiencing a whole new culture and being exposed to it firsthand I realized that life’s beauty is found in the simplest of things, but the path to see them is so complex that you must mature in order to do so.

“Hard-work is not done with the hands, but rather the heart.”-My grandmother Lucy
The first time I traveled to this tiny village, Ferrios do Dao in Portugal I was six years old. My grandmother was in good health at that time. As years have passed, she’s become weak and fragile. Although laughter and a smile the size of a watermelon core, never seem to be affected each time I am with her. Last summer, I spent five hours a day for one week, sitting near my grandmother watching her cook traditional Portuguese cuisine, listening to her preach and sing, talk about my father and her even her own childhood. Within these tiny moments, I was exposed to what real pain is. Someone who holds their tears back tightly, hands and feet swollen, face exhausted and overworked, with hair mangled with flies. Every emotion one can possibly feel was experienced; compassion, love, joy, anger, depression and sorrow. My grandmother was born into extreme poverty, never escaping until she married my grandfather. She’s worked all her life in everything she has ever pursued. After leaning over a cast-iron stove, listening for hours and understanding what a true struggle is, I slowly realized that many people are placed into your life, but then there’s those who are given to you for a reason and to see that beauty of life, you must cross paths with those people. I was exposed to the light of my grandmother’s presence and spirit, but I also experienced the darkness of pain and struggle. That’s why I don’t commit until I’m devoted, because hard-work is not just given to you and it certainly is not easy.

A relationship is the most powerful weapon in society. It defines who you are and where you come from. I had sat down with my cousin Anabela’s family of nine for dinner one evening, not realizing that one conversation would lead to multiple, and in the end I would see that life is truly beautiful in just family alone. It began with Marco talking about his education, Pedro about his newborn son, Danny with America, then my uncle and aunt about the food and finally Anabela about boys and the United Sates. Each conversation was unique and inspiring. Within each were moments of laughter, sadness, lessons and even cries. These moments are always overlooked in our lives, without even a notice, eventually replaying but differently. It wasn’t until I headed back to the states, when I finally realized that these moments have so much beauty to the point where it’s so blinding which makes people overlook them. I was exposed to the light of relationships, and years later I will most likely be exposed to the darkness of technology on relationships themselves. Life is full of tiny moments and within those moments is so much more than the human sight and brain can comprehend. That’s why you must cherish them, instead of overlooking them. Life is simple but we insist on making it complicated.
Friendships build foundations to relationships. Last summer I was exposed to many different cultures through the friendships of Portuguese, Brazilin and even French individuals. For two weeks, each night, we would escape into the streets of Ferrios, giggling and shouting, catching the magnificent beauty of the night sky, while the river rumbled with the crisp breeze. We played soccer, walked up and down the narrow streets holding hands and talking in five different languages. Yet over coke-a-cola, magnums, tree jumps, cliff climbs and dancing I formed friendships with complete strangers that I will have for the rest of my life. I realized that people cross paths with you for unexplainable reasons. You can either just go with it or walk away and close a door to an opportunity of the unknown. I was exposed to what true friendship is and when I went back to the states, I experienced the darkness of missing the people you love and care about. Life’s beauty is so complex, but when you’re given an opportunity to experience something ordinary which exposes you to the unimaginable it’s overpowering but amazing! And I wouldn't be who I am today with the outlook I have on life, if I hadn't traveled to a place 3,000 miles away.