If I could give this year a defining word (in my personal experience) Id say the word is: Colombia. Not only did Disney just release a new movie last month about Colombia titled Encanto, which honestly blew my mind, but we also got to take a whirl wind trip all around Colombia. I got to finally meet my blood relatives that live on the Colombian coast. Meeting them actually brought me so much closure about who I truly am, because unlike most of my peers, I was a late bloomer getting to know my second country, my extended family, and my roots. I can tell you that I absolutely love my Colombian heritage. I am a first generation American, which means that both my parents were immigrants from Colombia, and I was born and raised in America. In situations like this you have one of two choices to make: you neglect your familys roots and focus solely on the country youre living in, or you can embrace both cultures equally. Psychologists say that embracing both cultures that you are apart of is actually a to successfully being happy and fulfilled in your life. Growing up, I
felt a bit topsy turvy trying to figure out where I truly fit in, because I didnt fit in 100 percent here, nor there. Ive met and befriended many people throughout the years that like me, are also straddling two different worlds and that has further enticed me to just embrace it all. I think the more multicultural you are, the luckier you are! Youre exposed to so many rich experiences, and you get to meet many important people that can change your life. And truly, if I had not decided to embrace my Colombian heritage, I probably never would have met my husband Victor, who is also and is the love of my life, so Im very grateful!
The main reason we decided to take such a risk and travel with our young daughters this year amid the pandemic, was because my sister in law (Victors sister) was getting married in Colombia. They were basing their wedding date on our arrival, and they wanted our daughters to be apart of the wedding ceremony as flower girls, so of course we were going to do our best to be there. The day before
our trip, we stayed at a hotel in Atlanta near the airport, due to our flight being so early and the airport being so far away from our home base. We thought we were being so prepared, and that everything would run smoothly. Until we realized we had forgotten two very to being able to fly to Colombia. The first were our passports, which were tucked away in Victors car, at the airport parking garage. Victor was able to retrieve the passports easily. But we couldnt check into our flights because we had not signed into the form (from the Migracion Colombia website.)
Upon learning that we needed these forms (which was around 3am on the day of our departure) Victor frantically tried to fill in the forms on at our Atlanta hotel, but that failed for some strange reason. He went to a neighboring hotel, and the same thing happened. Then he tried to do it at the airport using his smart phone, and that failed. A very kind Colombian lady tried helping us from her personal phone, and that almost succeeded... but then ultimately failed. What in the world was
going on?! Was fate trying to keep us from flying, or something? We were merely minutes from having to board our flight, and we were still in the airport lobby standing around in despair. Victor was sweating from his failed attempts, and Im almost in tears. When finally, one of the Spirit airlines workers (reluctantly) was able to sign us into the forms that we needed to fly. Then another miracle happened; she was able to pass us through to the front of the security check line, which would have taken us over an hour on our own, and wed certainly miss our flight. After passing security, we had to run with all our strength, with our luggage, and our two very inpatient young daughters, going through several train stops and long escalators to get to our gate.
