We may not notice it, but children are way more sensitive than we think. Parents often believe that their kids won’t feel pressured, afraid of disappointment, or anxious; but they can feel all of those things. Even though children’s sports competitions sound like it’s a good way to build discipline and character, it may have more disadvantages underneath the shiny exterior. Kids can feel pressured by their parents or coaches to be excellent, which can lead to them becoming perfectionists or super self-demanding. They can feel afraid of quitting or cutting back on practices because they don’t want to let anybody down. They may hide or cover up their injuries because they are afraid of missing out on practices or competitions, which leads to their injuries getting worse. Finally, they can have anxiety or panic attacks before a competition, since there are usually a lot of people in the audience and demanding judges. It’s a better choice to let children play sports in a casual and recreational way, because they can still get the benefits of an active life without the pain of big and exhausting competitions. 

We live in a society, which means we are not alone in this world and we need others to survive, just as you need help once in a while, so does the rest of the world. Helping others, in a big way or a little way, can change their day and attitude. For example, it you give your seat in the bus to an old lady, she may feel relieved and grateful, because you don’t know if she has been walking or standing all day and she is feeling tired. Secondly, helping others can help you become more empathic, because you will not only understand other’s situation, but help them solve it or change it. For instance, if a friend tells you they don’t have anything to eat for dinner, you do nothing telling them “I understand you”, because even though they will appreciate feeling heard, they need help. Another reason is because you should treat others as you would like to be treated.  For example, if there has been a moment when you felt like you had no one to talk to, try being that friend to someone else, someone you may know is struggling. The final reason is not as important as the others; however, good actions may be returned to you, in the close or distant future. For example, think about the old lady in the bus, what if her stop is before yours and when she is leaving, she tells you to take your seat back? Because you helped her first and now, she wants to help you. Maybe this won’t happen every time, but sometimes people can surprise you. Helping others can feel so rewarding, because even if you get nothing back, you will know in your heart that you have made someone’s day better. 

In November, 2021, I was with some classmates at my uncle’s cabin in La Paz, San Ramón. We were there because we needed to do some bird sampling for our ecology course. Our plan was simple: do a sample from 5:00am to 8:00am and then from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. However, around 11:00am I started to wonder: “what if we go to the waterfall that's near the cabin?” Someone told us the waterfall was 45 minutes away, so we thought that if we went fast enough, we could make it back in time for the second sampling, but it was a big shot. 

We started packing some fruit, water bottles, rain capes and boots. However, once we were outside, we realized there were 8 of us and just one car. The wise thing to do was not to go, because that was too many people to fit in one car, but we already had our mind set, so we fit everybody in the car and started to drive. We were going slow, because of all the extra weight, but it was enough for the car to drive downhill just fine. Some of us were drinking some beers we had left in the cooler, because we thought it was going to be a smooth trail down to the waterfalls. 45 minutes later, we arrived at the entrance to La Danta; the rest of the road wasn’t safe for cars to drive on. So we left the car, took our bags and started walking (some of us being a little bit tipsy).

The family in charge of the place told us it was only 1km walking down the trail, so we were relieved, because we were on a tight schedule. We started walking down the trail and everything was beautiful. We saw a lot of birds and frogs and the landscape was gorgeous. 40, 45, and 50 minutes had passed and we had not arrived at the waterfall yet. By this time, we already knew we were not going to make it back to the cabin in time.

When we arrived everything was absolutely stunning; the waterfall was so big and mighty and the nature around us made us feel amazing, like taking all of these risks were worth it. And somehow, the beers we took helped us, because we couldn’t feel all the pain of walking down a trail for 1 hour (but don’t try this at home). We stayed there for half an hour, and then we started going up the trail, back to our car. We arrived at the cabin around 3:30pm, but we had no regrets at all, since we had a wonderful time.