Who’s changed your world for the better since 2010?

Posted on by stanleyobando

During this momentous week that will wrap down 2019 and usher in a new decade, I want to do something a little different with the Daily Boost: zoom out and reflect on what’s past and what’s ahead. (In Friday’s Post, I hope to feature some of your responses!)

In that spirit, since Monday is the day I try to highlight people who make the world a better place, I want to ask: who’s changed your world the most in the past 10 years? Who are you watching for action and inspiration as a new calendar opens up before us?

I’ve been inspired by so many, in so many places. In a quiet valley teeming with life, all thanks to the efforts of a hard-working family. At an oasis of calm and learning at Parque Viva in Desamparados. At a tranquil university campus in Ciudad Colon. At a stadium where a woman blazed her way into the history books and inspired a whole nation of girls. On an Instagram account where a woman opened up space for searing personal stories, brushing away shame and stigma one post at a time.

And there was so much inspiration from outside Costa Rica. Barack. Michelle. Greta. Chanel. The women of #metoo all over the world. My God: in 2010, there was no “Hamilton” or Beychella. How lucky we are to be alive right now.

As I head into 2020, I’m convinced that leadership does, can, and must now come from everywhere, especially when it no longer comes from the places we used to seek it. It feels like, amid all the destruction, the world is growing up. This is scary and exciting. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter). 

Day 16: In just 12.64 seconds, she opened doors

Posted on by stanleyobando
Costa Rican athlete Andrea Vargas

I spend a lot of time thinking about the big changes that need to happen in order for my daughter to inherit a Costa Rica and a world where women are treated better than they are today. Yesterday, I was reminded that sometimes, those changes get made through sheer individual achievement. Doors can be smashed open by, say, one woman who runs like hell.

How improbable is it for a Costa Rican athlete to become the fifth-fastest woman in world? As a friend pointed out after Andrea Carolina Vargas Mena broke her own records to secure her spot among the world’s best at the World Athletics Championships, not to mention becoming the first athlete from her country ever to qualify for an open-area athletics final, you have to take her context into account – and not just the tininess of her country, five million strong. It’s the lack of support, both official and societal, for female athletes. The lack of enthusiasm for any sport aside from soccer. I am reasonably interested in sports and very interested in women’s sports, and had never heard of her until this weekend. Many people here are still unaware, especially since she ran her final at the same time that Saprissa and Alajuela were facing off on the football pitch.

All of this is to say that when Andrea Vargas blazed her way down the track, she overcame not only the limits of her own legs and lungs but also layer upon layer of disinterest, of low expectations, of what have surely been many pulls and distractions and calls to give up and do something considered more sensible or appropriate. She showed us what it means to power through. Without any doubt, she gave new hope and surely attracted new resources to women athletes of all ages in Costa Rica – including women who are mothers, as she is.

Andrea won many hearts in just 12.64. She definitely won mine:

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter).