- I took a trip with my mom and grandma when I was 6.
- A jellyfish stung me, and my mom peed on me, which mortified me.
- Still, I look back fondly at that trip with my family.
“Don’t swim there, there’s a jellyfish!”
It was 1996, I was 6 years old, and I was vacationing with my mom and grandma on the remote Colombian island archipelago of San Andres and Providencia. I saw nothing in the perfectly clear water, so I ignored my grandma’s warning.
Sure enough, I got stung in the stomach. My screams filled the beach and didn’t stop when my mom frantically picked me up and ran back to our room (which was, thankfully, very close). Then, she did something I am very embarrassed to admit: She peed on me. In the moment, I didn’t even care, I was just relieved. But afterward, I felt so grossed out that I wanted to cry.
That was my first real trip ever. It was a complete disaster, but it’s also one of my most formative childhood memories.
There was no kids’ menu
Even before that happened, the trip had proved challenging.
Most tourists in Providencia’s tiny but gorgeous island stay at locally-owned guest houses or hotels, but since my mom had lived there for several years, we were staying with our island “family.” In the ’90s, there was no A/C in the house, and water was limited. To shower, we had to fill buckets with water and then use bowls to pour the water on ourselves. I was used to the comforts of Bogota, a huge capital city whose year-round 60-degree weather made the island heat difficult to bear.
I also had to eat crab soup and other seafood I didn’t like. We ate whatever was at the house — no kids’ menu or choices.
But rather than ruining the vacation for me, these challenges made it memorable. This has convinced me of one important truth: Kids don’t always need to be comfortable while traveling. Seeing my mom and my grandma seamlessly adapt to the circumstances without complaining or even remarking on them made me react the same way.
The trip helped me grow
Living without the comforts of the city and trying foods that I didn’t necessarily like felt like small adventures to my six-year-old self. These experiences helped me build a sense of identity as someone adventurous, flexible, and willing to step out of her comfort zone. Four years after the trip, this identity helped me navigate life in a new country when my family moved to the US. It’s also helped me as an adult as I’ve traveled to over 45 countries and lived in four continents.
Even the very painful jellyfish sting (and its very embarrassing cure) became my first tale of travel misadventure, which I was excited to share with my siblings when I returned to Bogota. In my brain, these challenges were stored in the same place as the good memories of the trip: floating in the Sea of Seven Colors next to my grandmother, falling asleep in a hammock, reading with my mom as we lay on the sand, and being on an island that truly feels disconnected from the rest of the world. As a whole, I remember it as a beautiful trip with two of the people that I loved the most.
My grandmother died very recently. This was the only real trip we ever went on together, and I am now more grateful than ever for those hot, uncomfortable nights spent in a tiny room with her.
I’m also glad that the jellyfish taught me at a young age that I should (almost) always listen to her wisdom. I’m sure that it saved me from even harsher stings in life.
