Day 1 in PR
Today was my first day in PR for the first time, so I wanted to recap my experience because I’m honestly so happily surprised.
I’ve always dreamed of coming to the island as a kid, as I grew up in the diaspora in the states and my family is from PR. My grandparents immigrated to the US years ago, and while my mom has been able to visit, this is finally my first time on the island. I’ve been nearly moved to tears so many times today, from the simplest things like seeing the palm trees sway in the breeze to hearing the coqui to watching the waves crash and seeing the light blue flags fly. I can hear the coqui right now as I’m getting ready for bed and I feel at peace. There truly is nothing in the world like this island. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming, the food has been phenomenal, and its extremely gorgeous. I feel so much happiness and pride right now.
I feel like I’m connecting to my family’s roots even more and this experience will last me a lifetime. I’m so excited for the rest of the week and I can’t wait to explore more of the island and meet so many people. I’m in San Juan right now, but I’m hoping to visit Ponce sometime this week because it’s where my grandpa is from. Overall, I’ve fallen in love with PR and I haven’t even been here for 12 hours yet.
I know that there is a lot of discourse surrounding Ricans on the island vs. Ricans in the diaspora, but being here all I feel is love for both the people and the island itself. It’s such a beautiful feeling to be here, and I‘m aiming to be as respectful as I can during my stay as the locals here are truly a blessing. I’ll wrap this up now, but I don’t think I’ve ever fallen in love with a place as fast as I have with PR, and being here is a healing experience for me. I’ve also been trying to reach out to my family who still live on the island, so hopefully I can see them this week as well.
Goodnight! 🇵🇷