With Great Joy We Celebrate Staff Impact

After spending two years at TLC, it’s become more than a home to me. I’ve been reflecting on my time at TLC and adjusting to life back in the US. To say it’s a lot to process is an understatement.

Honduras and the US are both wonderful places and each has its positives and negatives. If you know anything about TLC, you know that it’s located in the middle of the mountains and that we don’t get out often. One of my newfound appreciations in the US is jumping in my car, going to the grocery store and dreaming up what I want to eat, and making it! And knowing I can go back the next day to do it again! This is a privilege we don’t have at TLC. However, I think one of the hardest things about the US is the lack of community and social interaction. I have been surprised at how little we talk to others even when there are millions surrounding us.?At TLC, in the middle of nowhere, I woke up to breakfast with 60 people I loved every day. And there is nothing quite like it.

As I think about my time at TLC, I have confirmation that it has been the people that make it so wonderful. From the staff members that I got to work with, to the students I got to teach, they are amazing. I learned that it’s a choice to always love one another and to serve one another. At TLC, it’s not an option to be mean or act rudely and that changes the environment of everything. When it has been decided that kindness is the requirement, it fills a place with love and laughter, and joy.

I learned so much at TLC. But I think most importantly, that it’s fun to be a student and it’s so much easier when we don’t have to know everything. I learned about farming, animals, cooking, sewing, dancing, and Honduran culture. I think in my second year I learned a very valuable lesson. That was that even though I had learned so much about Honduras, I still had so much more to learn. As I am writing this now, I still feel the same. Cultural is so complex and I have learned that I will always be a student of it.

My hope for myself is that I can take many of the things I learned at TLC and continue doing them here. I want to be appreciative, to be kind always, and to be a student.?My hope is that one day each of you could experience this place firsthand and learn something from a place I’ll always call home.