Age Doesn’t Equal Experience

I met a girl named Fred. She was heading south through Costa Rican hostels while I was working my way north. Fred was beautiful, but I couldn’t help but notice how young she looked, too young to be backpacking through Central America alone.  Every morning, we would be the first two people up in the hostel and would take advantage of free pancakes and O.J. Our hostel, Tranquillo Backpackers, was across the road from a beach in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. This continued for three mornings.

We talked about our travels and where we had been; her list was so much longer than mine. She had hit every continent at least once and explored Canada, the US, and Europe extensively. She explained she was a French-Canadian model and whenever she was low on funds she would return home to Canada, work for a few months, and then head back out and continue exploring. She had no parents and no extended family for as long as she could remember so she really was on her own.

On the last morning of my stay in the hostel, Fred and I met again in the community kitchen. I had learned a lot from her but still had so many questions about how she managed and what life was like, always on the run.

I asked her how old she was as we were parting ways after breakfast. She shook her head so I asked her again. Although I pushed for an answer she wouldn’t tell me. She simply explained: I have seen so much in my life, more than most people three times my age. Age isn’t important, age is an invention and one that leads people into thinking the older someone is, the more experienced they have to be. That’s simply not true. I won’t reveal my age because you’ll only feel that I am “too young” to be venturing out into the world like this alone.

She asked me to drop the subject, I smiled and nodded, she gave me a hug and I never saw her again.

So…I never found out Fred’s age and thinking about it now, I doubt Fred was her real name. Such a peculiar but insightful experience. Endgame creates an environment for our teammates to experience these types of relationships authentically and naturally.

There’s so much to be learned and in the strangest of places. Keep your ears and eyes open and actively search for knowledge.

-Supervising Educator Hunter Cambon