Patrick Garrett '12 - I grew up never really caring about getting to know the world outside of Crawfordsville. All throughout my childhood I would catch snakes and turtles along the banks of Sugar Creek letting my love and knowledge of nature grow. In fact, I got so comfortable with Crawfordsville that I never left. Besides the occasional trip to Lafayette and Indianapolis and one vacation to Florida, I have always been in Crawfordsville (and that is a whole other blog in itself). My one vacation out of the state to Florida was hardly an experience because when you are seven years old and not tall enough to ride any rides at Disney Land, it’s hard to have fun.

About the time I applied for Wabash I was beginning to realize how much I was missing out on by not traveling and learning more about my culture and the cultures of others. At the same time though I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant and I would soon have a baby, or guaguita as they are called in Ecuador, running around the house. So my hopes for any kind of travel experience outside or even within the states got put on the back burner, and school and my new family got put on the front.

Here I get to my point. What is special about Wabash? I think that the education, traditions, and strong community are important but what I think is truly special about Wabash College is the opportunities that it gives young men. Wabash opened the door for me to have one of the most interesting and fulfilling experiences of my life, despite my financial, and familial obligations. Now as my son grows up I can share with him the things I have learned about Latin American culture and I can be a better father through my experiences in Ecuador. I get the opportunity to grow as a person and student. To me, this is a perfect image of the opportunities Wabash gives young men. This is what educates men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely. You could spend your entire four years at Wabash repeating that mission statement in your head and never understand it’s true meaning or purpose. That’s why it’s such a good thing that Wabash men get these types of opportunities.

Looking back on the trip I would have to say I had the best experience during our weekend on the coast. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun at the same time. After a short plane ride followed by a long bus ride we arrived in Puerto Lopez. On our first day we visited Agua Blanca, a nature preserve about 15 minutes away from our hotel. We hiked through dry forest habitat for a couple of hours while our guide described the wildlife. Towards the end of our hike we were all exhausted. After waking up too early and traveling all day, we were all ready to call it quits… That is until our professors told us they were getting ready to take us to the beach!

It was so amazing for me! I can’t even begin to explain the emotions I felt. This was my first time in the ocean ever! There is no better feeling than running into the pacific ocean and feeling the waves crash into you and the cool breeze whistle by your ears. I felt so small on the beach, watching the sunset on what looked like an endless ocean. All I could hear were the waves crashing on rocks and the birds in the air. It was a very humbling experience for me. For the first time in my life all of the things I had read about in biology textbooks or heard about from friends were put into perspective. I was witnessing the incredible diversity of life I spent the last two semesters studying in my intro. Biology courses and I was loving it. I won’t bore those of you reading this by listing all of the different classes of species I encountered but I will say that there was a lot and they were awesome (at least for bio major)!

The next day we visited La Isla de la Plata, which has adopted an alternate name as The Poor Man’s Galapagos . On our boat trip to the island we had the joy of witnessing manta rays jumping out of the water in the distance. We got to see more of them as we got closer to the island and also got to sea my favorite animal of all, marine turtles. They were close enough that we could have touched them. AWESOME!!! As our boat began to approach the beach I couldn’t help but notice the stunning geography and wonder how Charles Darwin felt as he approached islands similar to this.

Again we hiked. This time though we were met by a huge array of animals. We saw: Blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, hammerhead sharks, manta rays, marine turtles, an albatross, and a snow egret. Until that day I thought that blue footed boobies only existed on the discovery channel and in magazines. Afterwards I had my first snorkeling experience which was so amazing for me. I spent most of the last semester learning how different and alike different animals were, but here I was actually SEEING it! I spent the end of the day lounging on the beach next to our hotel, reflecting on everything I had experienced thus far with the guys.

Our final day was a free day. We all decided to visit the beach we saw on the first day. We found a spot on the beach with black sand, and decided it would be best to paint ourselves in it (What else would a bunch of college guys do?). With our war point donned it felt necessary that we explore, so me and a couple of the guys trekked the rougher parts of the beach. Although we spent most of the time catching crabs, we also spent a fair amount of time relaxing and hanging out.

This trip gave me the opportunity to experience so many new things, to build strong relationships with my fellow students, and also gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge of other cultures. I am so thankful to all who made this possible!