Watching the Bad Bunny Halftime Show got me thinking about the version of me who once lived in California. I considered myself open-minded back then, and in many ways I was.

But living abroad has stretched that openness in ways I could not have imagined. It has asked me to step inside someone else’s daily reality. Not as a tourist passing through, but as an active participant.

Living abroad reminds us how much there is to learn when we’re willing to see the world through more than our own lens.

Below are some reflections shaped by fourteen years of living in Costa Rica and how that time has reshaped and expanded not just my worldview, but my understanding of where I fit within it.

My reflections on the Bad Bunny Halftime Show

I don’t know Bad Bunny’s music, and some of the lyrics weren’t completely understood. I’ve never been someone who learns a language through songs. That said, it didn’t matter. I understood the story unfolding on stage.

The joys.
The challenges.
Everyday life in the barrio.

The halftime show wasn’t just something that I watched. It resonated deeply in my body, beyond translation.

Maybe I caught more than some because I’ve lived in Costa Rica for nearly 14 years. I know a little about the general exploitation that has occurred in most countries south of the border. I know a little about Puerto Rico’s history. And I know that many of the challenges portrayed are not unique to the island. There are threads that connect us all.

I understood what the sugar cane symbolized.
The domino table – took me straight back to wandering the streets of Cuba.
The song about colonization that Ricky Martin sang.
The casita. The market. The pipa (coco frío) stand. The barber shop (again, Cuba) and so much more.

There were cultural references specific to Puerto Rico (and NY) that I missed, of course. That’s what curiosity (and google) are for.

I’m aware that Puerto Rico has endured months without power after hurricanes. Here in Costa Rica, my longest outage has been just under three days. I don’t take that for granted. And I know I never would have fully understood that if I were still living in my California bubble.

Living abroad shifts you. Travel does too. It stretches your perspective in ways you can’t even begin to imagine until you’re right there, experiencing it.

Not everyone has those opportunities.

For anyone living in a bubble (and many of us have a tendency to do so, even those of us who try hard not to), that show had the power to burst it.

Bad Bunny shared his culture and his love for his country, even in the flag he chose to carry (that isn’t Puerto Rico’s current flag). It gave a little peek into someone else’s beautiful, messy life. That kind of storytelling makes the unfamiliar feel human. It turns “other” into neighbor. It makes us reconsider what we think we know.

That’s never a bad thing.