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 As a high school senior living these last months at home, it’s pretty easy to become lost in the life-changing decisions looming ahead. It’s easy

 to get caught up in college applications, SAT scores, first semester grades, and of course the parties and friends and girls. What isn’t easy,

 though, is finding a time or place to really look into yourself and try to discover what the real reason you’re going through all of this is.

 While senior year is meant to prepare you for going to college, most kids end up getting so caught up in all academic preparation that they

 don’t have time to prepare mentally. This is why my experience in Nicaragua was so important to me. It was a chance for me to get away from

 everything for just a week, and reconnect with myself and with God.

Now, saying that I had a chance to reconnect with God may not seem that unusual to most of you, but to me was slightly more significant.

Before my trip to Nicaragua, I’d kind of forgotten about God. If you asked me a month ago whether or not I even believed in God, I most likely

 would have replied with a straightforward ‘no’. Thinking about it now, I think I one would have to try to not see God in Nicaragua. I had the

 privilege of assisting Dr. Morelli and Dr. Siegel for the first few days of my trip, by videotaping Triage and surgeries. During that day of

 Triage, I was confronted in the crowded lobby. I was tapped on the shoulder, and when I turned around I was met by an older man, who was

 filthy and missing most of his teeth but was smiling from ear to ear. With very limited English and numerous hand gestures he

 communicated to me that he was the uncle of the girl sitting behind him, who had just seen Dr. Morelli as a candidate for surgery. He then put

 his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye and said “Thank you, sir. The need is so great here, we need you. Thank you for helping

 us.”  Until that moment, I’d had a lot of mixed feelings about the trip. I’d been wondering why I’d even come to Nicaragua. At first, I’ll admit,

 I felt slightly uncomfortable being the only teenager in the group. I’d started to think that I didn’t belong on the trip at all, and maybe it was a

 mistake in coming. After that man spoke to me though, I sort of had an epiphany. I began to see God in everything around me, for the first

time in years. I realized how ridiculous it was for me to feel uncomfortable around the rest of the team, because I knew that they’re all loving

 caring people who are doing God’s work. I was suddenly very proud to be a part of that. Because even though the impact we made was so

 small compared to the greatness of the need down in Nicaragua, the impact that we made was enormous for the people we came into contact

 with. Towards the end of the week, we visited a school with kids ranging from kindergarten to maybe fourth grade.  Steve Gill and I went to

 each classroom, and tried to lead the kids in song. I played an acoustic guitar while Steve sang and tried, with an interesting British-Spanish

 accent, to have the kids participate. After we finished each classroom we would say goodbye to the kids, and share a prayer with the teacher.

 And I have to tell you, I was pretty confused at the reactions of the teachers to our performances. Even though we were just playing some

 simple songs for the kids, these women seemed to be about to cry they were so happy. I realized that even though what we were doing

 seemed so trivial to me, it was monumental to them. These women truly cared about these kids, and they were so grateful to us for caring

 about them too. I saw God in these women because they cared so much for these kids, that seeing somebody else care about them, even for

 just a few hours, brought tears to their eyes. Throughout all of this, I realized how important it is to care for people in need, to maintain your

 relationship with God and yourself.

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