Finding Joy in the Everyday

My List of “Good Things” While in Puerto Rico

By Giuli Hoffmann

First, a little background about me:

In the simplest of terms, I am a pessimist. I am a negative-dweller. I have been my whole life. Any minor inconvenience, honest mistake, or temporary bad mood has the capacity to overshadow a genuinely pleasant day. 

I am not, however, a masochist. I don’t want to be unhappy. I don’t want people to think of me as a Sullen Sally or Negative Nelly, or, in my case, a Grumpy Giuli. So for the past couple of years, I’ve made a conscious effort to have a more positive outlook about life. Despite some horrible traffic congestion, an awkward interaction, a disgustingly prominent zit, or an undesirable grade, there are a plethora of other things—no matter how big or small—that go well in a day. I write down all the positive things that occur, and therefore have tangible proof that just because one or two or three (or, god forbid, 20) bad things happened, the whole day wasn’t ruined or wasted.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Puerto Rico content, and the whole reason why I wrote that long and boring excerpt about myself. I present to you, a humble, chaotic, and incomplete list of the “good things” I took note of while on the island for a week.

• Seeing the sun vibrantly set in purples, oranges, and pinks over a cloud cover that literally looked like a plain of cotton balls as the plane started to descend. Even to a sunset-obsessed girly like myself, this one was top-tier
• Arriving at the hostel later than we expected, tired and starving after being in airports or on planes for 9 hours, and having a delicious Puerto Rican meal of rice, beans, marinated pork, and sweet plantains
• Meeting Polpy, my team’s video character, for the first time and seeing how excited he was for us to be there and learn about his fishing practice. At the end, he hugged us and said “welcome home”
• Drinking (non alcoholic) piña coladas that María Luisa, one of our other story character’s, made for us before she took us on a walk around Loíza
• Watching my first-ever bomba dance at a class being taught in Piñones and being blown away by the fact that the women’s moves and style determine the rhythm and tempo of the music, rather than the other way around. I couldn’t stop grinning the entire hour because all the little girls and grown women, no matter their level of skill or experience, were enlivened by the music and making the repetitive dress twirling and footsteps uniquely theirs
• Stopping at a beach along the road between Loiza and the hostel on the first day for “design inspo”, but really just because the beach was so picturesque and we wanted to walk in the water and take pictures
• Getting to know Amanda, the student at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón working on my team, better by going out to dinner and talking about American and Puerto Rican college traditions. I had one of the best burgers of my entire life and a local beer with a can so cute that I lugged it in my suitcase back home
• Swimming at the beach late at night with some of my female classmates and feeling like I was in a scene from a poignant coming-of-age movie
• Watching another bomba ceremony that we stumbled upon in San Juan, getting to explain to my classmates how the dance worked, and then being asked to join with other spectators and learning how to dance it myself
• Walking into a random bar in Old San Juan and dancing in full lighting because the music and vibes were so good that it didn’t matter
• Going to El Archivo General y Biblioteca Nacional to find photos and historical information about Loíza (the town my team was doing a story on), not expecting to find anything because it was so last minute and we didn’t have an appointment. But we received entire folders of information to rifle through. I’d never felt more like a journalist. The librarian also generously complimented my spanish, because I’d made an effort to exclusively use it
• Dancing at La Placita, a hub of clubs, bars, and nightlife hotspots, with my classmates and Amanda on our second-to-last night and completely sweating through my newly washed hair, full face of makeup, and jeans because I was so enthralled by the music
• Seeing the absolutely beautiful pastel colors of the buildings in Old San Juan. I purposely wore a monochrome mint outfit to match the vibes. I think I took 500 photos between my camera and phone after being there for only 3 hours
• Getting a refreshing strawberry lemonade popsicle in Old San Juan that my design coach graciously paid for
• Spending the day at El Yunque, unironically listening to LMFAO while driving through the literal rainforest, taking 15 minutes to walk 50 feet along the trail because all the photographers were stopping to take photos of everything, hilariously watching my classmates and coach struggle to use a rope swing in two feet of water, and stopping at a rest area with beautiful 180 degree views. From the *unconventional* way we drove to the national park, to the absolutely incredible chicken shish kabob that I still haven’t paid my professor back for (it was only $4, I think he’ll be fine), the entire day was surreal
• Ordering some life-changing truffle fries from the tapas restaurant we went to on our last day and nabbing an entire fish taco from another table in our group because my classmates who ordered it had already left

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