Debí Tirar Más Fotos ~ And Other Things Travel Taught Me
During the Super Bowl halftime show last Sunday, Bad Bunny performed Debí Tirar Más Fotos — a song whose title translates roughly to “I should have taken more photos.”
I’ll be honest: I wasn’t exactly glued to the game. But that performance? I loved watching it. The viewer literally went on a journey, guided by Bad Bunny. I found myself analyzing how the cameras were coordinated throughout it. I am a camera nerd through and through.
The song isn’t really about photography. It’s about attention. It’s about how quickly a moment becomes a memory, and how easy it is to move through life so fast that you forget to actually notice it. It’s about Puerto Rico — its people, its culture, its beauty — and the grief of watching something you love change before you’ve had a chance to hold onto it.
The whole halftime show felt like a love letter to a place. To a story. To the idea that where you’ve been shapes who you are.
I felt that in my bones, because two weeks before the Super Bowl, I was in Costa Rica.
doing something new changes how you see
I went to Costa Rica to document the Reclaim Your Peace Retreat, led by Heather Vickery of Vickery and Co. And yes — I also went to actually be there. To breathe. To step outside of the particular shape my life takes in Chicago in January.
Getting there wasn’t simple. I have kids. My husband travels for work half of every week. Making this trip happen required real coordination. But my youngest son’s response when I told him? Zero hesitation with eyes that lit up. “YOU SHOULD GO.”
He was right.
Here’s the thing about leaving your everyday environment: it doesn’t just relax you. It recalibrates you. When the familiar is gone, you actually have to look at what’s in front of you. The light looks different. The sounds are new. Your nervous system has nothing to automate, so it pays attention.
We had a neighborhood sloth hanging out in a tree near one of the shelters for a few days. They only descend every few days to eat. Other days they’re still. One person witnessed it scratching the back of its neck. For fifteen minutes on one itch. That’s not an exaggeration. One arm. Slow reach. Adjust. Try again. Get there eventually.
Stepping into that sloth’s position, my first instinct was impatience — everything in me is trained to move faster, solve faster, get to the point. But the sloth wasn’t behind. It wasn’t struggling. It was just doing the thing at the pace the thing required.
I’ve thought about that sloth so much since I got home.
Noticing Is the Work
A hummingbird nested just outside my door. The light shifted throughout the day in ways I kept stopping to watch. Tarantulas living in the earth below — appearing briefly when light hit them at night, then disappearing again. Not threatening. Just existing, in their own quiet space.
When you slow down, you see more. As a photographer, I know this. As a person, I have to keep relearning it.
Bad Bunny’s halftime show was doing the same thing — asking us to stop and be in the moment with him in Puerto Rico. To see it clearly, not just in passing. To take the photo, not because the photo is perfect, but because the moment deserved to be noticed.
That’s what travel does for me. It puts me in the position of beginner again. And being a beginner means you can’t afford not to pay attention.
What About You?
I want to hear where travel has cracked something open for you. Where have you gone — near or far — that changed the way you see?
Find me over virtual coffee and let’s swap stories. Or better yet, come find me in person at the Chicago EmPower Breakfast, a monthly gathering directed by Heather Vickery herself — a community of people who believe in showing up, paying attention, and connecting with intention. It’s on the second Friday of every month, and it’s the kind of room where real conversations actually happen.
Because some things are worth more than a scroll.