Every morning waking up in Bonaire felt extremely refreshing and peaceful. I shared a room with my best friend of 7 years and walking out to our porch each morning to do yoga made me feel like I never wanted to leave. The buildings were all painted yellow, the color alone can trigger happiness within our minds.

But mixed with the bright blue water in the distance, the abundant green trees, and the chirping of birds, the feeling of bliss and excitement was very familiar. Today was a special day, our class would be involved in a coastal cleanup to help save sea life from pollution. We started with our complementary breakfast, which was a great way to start each day. Our class picked up twenty mesh bags as we headed to the South coast of the island, where beaches were filled with trash. On the way we spotted wild dogs, flamingos in the distance, we also saw giant waves in an area of the island that was “un-dive-able” because the tradewinds made the water so rough and dangerous.

When we arrived there was trash everywhere from all around the world: shoes, bottles, rope, cans, toiletries, etc. You name it, you could find it on that beach.

Within 30 minutes, the twelve students in our class and our two professors filled all twenty of those bags with just plastic. We were so proud! As much as we did, the beach still looked heavily polluted. But we all knew we helped make a change.

We dropped off our bags at “Dive Friends” which sent out volunteers to collect trash on the island. The trailer they used for this program was filled a quarter of the way when we arrived, and overflowing by the time we left.

This is an amazing feeling, knowing you’ve made a difference, and working hard to achieve it. So we returned to our hotel to prepare for our “reward” in the afternoon. We headed to Lac Bay on the South-East side of the island. This beautiful beach is home to many sea grass beds, turtles, and wind-surfers. My best friend and I came to the beach with one goal: to try windsurfing for our first time. And we did! It was a little hard at first and we diffidently weren’t professionals by the end of our 45-minute rental but we did good! It’s something I look forward to trying again.

After a few hours at Lac Bay we proceeded to go back to the hotel. For those of us who were interested, we could go on a night dive that evening. My best friend and I were on a roll that day so we went for it! Two “firsts” in one day, and pretty awesome ones at that: Windsurfing and Night Diving. The night dive was very interesting and fun. We saw the polyps on the coral opening up, something they only do at night. We saw parrot-fish wrapping themselves in a mucous-like cocoon to sleep. And Tarpon almost as big as me! It was amazing. The whole day (actually…the whole TRIP) was unforgettable and I wouldn’t want to experience it with anyone other than my classmates. It was my first time out of the country and I am so privileged to say it was to such a beautiful island. And I am already planning to visit next year!