Academic meets Artist: Waves of Growth

     Dribble. Dribble. She’s been running full speed, effortlessly, back and forth, for ten minutes now.      Drip. Drip. The stream of sweat begins where her golden locks meet her pale, freckled face. Sweat drips past the vein above her temple, noticeably raised from intense focus. Where the stream meets her rosy cheeks it releases droplets every few seconds, like a dehydrated waterfall, onto her fire engine colored jersey.       As the other ponytails run in frantic circles, in each step she pushes the checkered ball with the grace of a ballerina toward the goal. It’s as though a butterfly erupted through a sea of gnats. They are playing a game, she is showcasing an art. Everyone in attendance can see she is different. Everyone in attendance knows this is more than a game for her. Every set of eyes on the green canvas is on her.       A purple jersey begins to approach her. Her brow furrows, each fold in her forehe...

In his piece “Translating Translation: Finding the Beginning” through a series of short stories integrated with novice linguistic knowledge, Alberto Albaro Rios discusses translation. He eloquently portrays to the reader the complicated act of translation and how much can be lost if you only translate words, “Language is more than what we say -- it’s also how we say it, and whether or not we even understand what we are saying...Maybe that’s exactly what keeps a computer or a book from doing the job.” Rios begins the piece by explaining that not only do different languages sound different, with different words, different letters, and different pronunciations, when an individual speaks a different language they physically speak in a different way as well. As an example, Rios stated that “English has tenser vowels than, for example Spanish” (Rios, 506). Rios is fascinated by the physicality of language, fascinated by the idea that “words aren’t simply what they mean -- they are also phy...

      In his piece “Out of Water” Costa Rican poet Luis Chaves explores his lifelong relationship with the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and how it has evolved over his lifetime. Reminiscent of how years later Annie Dillard could still see the artful lines from Dave Rahm’s airshow, Chaves can still clearly picture the Pacific ocean at night from the window of a bus on the Inter-American highway. Chaves can clearly see the constant waves crashing on the sandy shore and “branches, seashells, a sandal, corks, and wine cartons brought back like buoys from some other ruin run aground on a new continent.” Then, Chaves describes the importance and majestic nature of being present in the moment, especially with the ocean, “Not so far away, someone is listening to a radio, listening to news of a world that may as well have been suspended a million light years from what is here now.”       In the next section of the piece, Chaves begins to explore waves of his own, mo...

In the first chapter of his book Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life, Philip Gerard concludes that creative nonfiction is created not from the stories you make up, but from the stories you find out. Additionally, Gerard explains that effective creative nonfiction is, “Captured with a clear eye and an alert imagination, filtered through a mind passionate to know and tell, told accurately and with compelling grace (Gerard, 12).” As a guide toward writing successful creative nonfiction, Gerard explains that a writer’s “first obligation is to tell the truth” (Gerard, 5). As a creative nonfiction writer, Annie Dillard seemed to carefully create “From The Writing Life” with Gerard’s first obligation in mind. For example, in the following quote from Dillard’s piece describing her excursion with geographer, Dick Smith and pilot and geologist, Dave Rahm, Dillard made sure to note that she was unsure of when or who told her the why the mountain was red “Their rock...

      Walking into class at 11:29 flustered, armed with a pile of papers, a laptop, and a clunky camera bag, I hope I didn’t forget anything. A classmate of mine, Corrie approached me holding out a section of the New York Times, “There’s an article about economics and women I thought you might want.” Touched by my classmate's considerate action and intrigued by the article, at lunch after class, I was excited to finally begin reading the article, “Wielding Data, Women Force Scrutiny of Bias in Economics.” Authors Jim Tankersley and Noam Scheiber detailed the discrimination faced by economists who identify as women in the workplace with support from many women who attended the American Economic Association panel, “Paper after paper presented at the American Economic Association panel showed a pattern of gender discrimination, beginning with barriers women face in choosing to study economics and extending through the life cycle of their careers…” As a young, elementary scho...

  This is a mug. It’s a standard ceramic mug, the model often sold in gift shops. It’s not special in shape nor in size -- it’s navy color and metallic writing are it’s only identifying features. It is a mug and its use is often limited to the consumption of hot beverages. However, it could be used as a pencil cup, it could store my most valuable jewelry, or it could hold a delicious ice cream sundae. It also, as it is intended, perfectly holds the cup of coffee dispensed from my Keurig each morning. The mug’s navy exterior is smooth to the touch except where it is adorned with two metallic prints. Both prints are filled with what appear to be scratches that have created a rough texture. Look closer, they are not scratches. Look at the acorn logo, look at the dark lines within it. Are they sharp? Straight? No. They may have jagged points, but they flow like a creek or the roots of a tree, reaching for more life. Each of these flowing lines, like a tree’s roots, is created by...

Hello all! I’m back on the blog and headed back to Nosara, Costa Rica this Spring for three months. Which means. . . welcome back to my thoughts and beautiful Nosara for an extended stay! I am incredibly thankful and excited for the opportunity to return to this beautiful place in an effort to further extend my knowledge, understanding, and myself as a whole. However, my excitement comes with fear. Will I be successful? I have not yet, and probably will never, be able to define what success means in terms of this trip. But, I would consider my previous study abroad venture to Nosara a success. I expanded my knowledge of myself, my ability to serve, surfing, happiness, surf culture, colonialism, Nosara, tourism, the connection between my body and mind, and so much more last summer during my program in Nosara. How could this program be as successful? It might not be, or it might be more successful in various different ways. I cannot know where this exploration will lead me, and t...

Can Westerners with a Frontier Mindset Find Pura Vida? Hannah Rouse The List “What I regret most about college was never studying abroad,” I heard this many times from those who had already finished school. So, I added studying abroad to my list. It is not a bucket list, just a list. It’s a list which may not be physical, or ever referenced by name, but is nonetheless very real. A list that I have found to be common among my peers also searching for a sense of fulfillment, for what is next. The list is filled with short-term tasks and long-term goals. The short-term, often mundane tasks are “valued only because we expect that [their completion] will make us happy.” They may include things like writing a boring English paper or going to work at a dreaded job, but the task itself isn’t what is significant. The list is significant because upon the completion of each task, upon the checking of each box, we expect to earn a small amount of happiness. But, our aggravation wi...

"When you surf you have that connection, you connect spiritually and physically to all the elements around you" (Walker, 4). "The tide of rising expectations is stilled; unfulfilled needs no longer trouble the mind" (Csikszentmihalyi, 7).

From North Carolina, the trip to Nosara, Costa Rica was more than 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles). The energy carried by the waves, which propels me on my surfboard each morning, could have also traveled several hundred kilometers to meet me in the green waves (Butt, 37). But, the glassy waves are only a fraction of the global waves affecting the town of Nosara. Surfing, as Comer explained, “had emerged as one possible expression of the problematic of globalization. . . Surfing had set people, money, goods, and ideas into motion in ways that created new forms of identity sociality, commerce, and politics” (Comer, 13). Surfing, is a vehicle of globalization. It acts as a wave, transferring energy worldwide in the form of economic structures, money, values, cultural practices, and environmental protections. Nosara is not immune to this global transfer of energy: transnational surf culture and the economic structures that come with it. The chest-high, clean, consistent waves and ...

"Strength can be discovered by the little girl inside who just loves to play in the waves" (Comer, 3).

Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left — “Paddle Faster,” my surf instructor yelled. Right, Left, Right, Left — the green Wave picks me up. the nose of my board   Touching the front of the Wave, tail to the Sky, hands to my waist, flat push my arms straight, right foot up near the back, left foot to the middle. knees bent, arms out,   standing. In control, with no control. weight on my back foot — white water to my left — lean my body to the right. The Board climbs the glassy Wave — it isn’t mine anymore, was it ever? — the Wave is carrying me, the Board I am not in control. Inhale, Exhale. weight on my front foot, lean slightly to my left, the Board glides down the Wave, moving with it but never moving. In control with no control, the powerful, yet gentle Wave carries me with ferocious love.   Working with Nature, not against, for the first time in a long time. “strength…discovered by the littl...