Theresa's 21st birthday

I had the fortune of celebrating my 21^st birthday in South Africa.  In South Africa 21^st birthdays are a big deal, because it is considered your coming of age, your welcoming into adulthood and as part of this tradition you are given a key, symbolically showing that you are responsible enough and grown up enough that your parents trust you to explore the world.  And I had the most spectacular birthday weekend because of my friends aka co-educators on this trip.  My birthday started off with mimosa’s (hey, we are from the US where the only reason your 21^st is a big deal is because you can drink legally-so we celebrated that a little bit as well) and a large breakfast in bed, and the house decorated with streamers and lots of inspirational quotes about birthdays and appreciating life.  We took a cab to class (which started the embarrassing trend of everyone telling everyone it was my birthday all weekend long), went to classes all day and then hurried home for our weekend away from our “home” here.  After a few delays, we were finally on a very crowded 8-hour bus ride to Plettenberg Bay.  We arrived early in the morning at Al Bergo’s Backpackers Hostel, (an adorable, eco-friendly, fair trade, super well thought out place) and immediately tried to get some sleep for our next days adventure.

We woke up from our very comfortable beds early in the morning and 12 of us started our journey to go kloofing (derived from an Afrikaans word 'kloof', meaning 'gorge' or 'ravine').  We arrived at the park, paid, and suited up into wetsuits and life jackets.  We were driven by a small bus up into the mountains and dropped off at the most beautiful farm.  After about another 30 min walk/hike (it was so hot because we had our wet suits on) we finally got to start travelling in the river.  Kloofing consists of following a ravine down a mountain, and jumping off cliffs along the way.  The water that we were in was very cold, but freshwater that we could drink along our journey.  This might have been the most beautiful, exciting thing I have ever done and being able to share it with my co-educators was lovely.  Part of Kloofing is the opportunity to jump off cliffs (from 5 meters to 11 meters) and with that comes the much-needed encouragement.  Being able to cheer on my co-educators and having them in the water to encourage me was so nice and a bonding experience.  We stopped with a few hours to go to have the most delicious meal of cookies (here they are called biscuits) and coffee.  We finished the adventure with a 30-minute swim, got out of our wetsuits and celebrated the finish with a beer that was provided through the company.  Overall, it was one of the most exhilarating and invigorating things I have ever done.  That evening we all went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday, and food has never tasted so good because we were all so tired and hungry. 

The next morning we woke up after a restful nights sleep to jump off Bloukrans Bridge, the Highest Commercial Bungy Jump in the World at 203 meters high.  The drive to the bridge was beautiful as it is part of the Garden Route, an especially pretty part of South Africa.  When we got to the place, we were weighed, harnessed and corralled onto the bridge.  Fear was quickly replaced with adrenaline when we reached the center of the bridge, music was pumped through the loud speakers and the workers were full of adrenaline.  Watching the first few people go off the bridge was terrifying, but hearing them talk about how wonderful it was when they came back up, was encouraging.  When it was finally my time, I tried to remain composed and made the decision to try and jump off, not get pushed off the bridge.  The first moment off the bridge was the scariest, but after the moment of pure terror, it quickly transformed into one of the most peaceful and serene experiences of my life.  After back up it was fun to continue to cheer on my co-educators and some of them even went off the bridge a second time backwards (that was scary to watch).  Overall, it was a fun, adrenaline filled morning.  We then continued our adventures by going to Kynsna Elephant Park and spending time feeding and petting elephants.  Lemons are my favorite food, so imagine my delight when I saw my bucket of elephant feed was full of lemons and I got to feed lemons to elephants.  This was a fun silly experience, the elephant’s skin was so dry and they acted like over-sized puppies, and were just adorable.  That evening, we were so exhausted we decided to all stay in together and spend time together, which was really fun.  The hostel was very conducive to talking, hanging out and watching movies. 

Overall, my birthday weekend is one that I will never forget.  Every birthday when I blow out my candles, I wish for contentment.  We are so quick to judge ourselves and our experiences against what others appear to be feeling and experiencing.  This birthday, and everyday I am working on contentment, knowing that what I did and choose to do was the right decision for me.  However there is also a fine line between being fine with the status quo and contentment, and this requires a fine balancing act.  If South Africa has taught me anything it is that I will constantly be working on balancing; privilege and enjoyment, contentment and compliance; and only through knowing I need to balance and working very hard to do so will I get the most out of life.