Guatemala

Back at one of my final junior tennis tournaments in Puerto Rico, I met a Spanish player named Joaquín, whose family was living in Guatemala. During my gap year, he invited me to spend a few days with them in Guatemala City, and I gladly took him up on the offer. He and his brothers showed me incredible hospitality as we wandered the streets of the country’s old colonial capital and rode horses up the slopes of a volcano.

During my freshman year of college, I had started promoting nightclubs in Miami and used some of the money I earned to visit Joaquín again. At the time, I was still carrying a great deal of anxiety and trying to distance myself from difficult memories I’d left behind in San Diego. Joaquín’s family didn’t solve those struggles, but their kindness, along with the kindness of so many people I met through travel, gave me a sense of comfort during a chapter of my life when I needed it most.