“Stretch beyond the familiar,” “go outside your comfort zone,” are some phrases we hear around schools, primarily as an invitation to build resilience and flexibility. These very words came to my mind during the break, as I vacationed in the Andes mountains of Colombia with my son and several nieces and nephews. They invited me to join their trek through a cave that was 100 meters underground and 0.6 miles long, with colonies of bats on the ceiling… you could not see most of them, but you could hear them and smell them! The cave was low and narrow in several segments, and before emerging on the other side, you had to jump 4.5 meters into a quarry, and swim out. Hard to believe that I actually paid to do this, but the feeling of accomplishment–and the looks of incredulity in my nephews’ and nieces’ faces–were worth it!
