Hello!

My name is Hannah, and I’m a student at the University of South Carolina Upstate. This coming March, I have the incredible opportunity to take part in a short-term study abroad program in Costa Rica with my university. When I first heard about it, I knew I needed to go — so much so that I took a University 101 class with the professor leading the trip to learn more. Traveling is a long-standing love of mine, and I was thrilled at the prospect — but even more so by the thought that this experience could be a new beginning: a step toward a future I can be proud of and out of the small space grief has held me in.

In the winter of 2023, I lost my dad to cancer. He was my father, my mentor, my best friend — the person I trusted most and looked to for guidance in everything. Losing him left a hole I didn’t know how to fill, and for a long time, I was just going through the motions. I stopped reaching for the things that once inspired me; I stopped really living. But I know he would want more for me. He would want me to challenge myself and find a way to move forward. I owe that much to myself, and that’s what this trip is for me — a promise to live in a way that will make us both proud.

As much as I love travel, this trip has become about more than that. It's about reminding myself that there is a wide world beyond me. It's about experience, about newness, about reaching for the life I want. It's about immersing myself in a perspective other than my own — in a new culture, in a new place, in a way that broadens my understanding of others and myself. It's about finding the courage to truly live: to dust yourself off and rise, even knowing you may fall again. And I hope to take what I learn — the empathy and understanding I gain — and use it to help those in my community and beyond, to use my voice and my story to inspire others who need a reminder that there is more beyond what they see.

Any support — whether through a donation or simply sharing my story — would mean the world to me. Thank you for taking the time to read, and for helping me take this next step in a journey that’s so important to me.

With all my thanks,

Hannah ❤️