Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic enters the story as the destination of Chris’s first major departure from home: an unexpected eco-hotel opportunity takes her abroad sooner than expected and makes her restless appetite for possibility concrete. Rather than following the plan others assumed for her, Chris changes course as soon as a new opening appears, leaving Lara Jean to recognize that this goodbye may last far longer than either of them can say.

A destination in a changing plan

Earlier, Chris had described taking a year off to work on farms, where labor would provide room and board, while also imagining alternatives such as a surfing school in New Zealand or learning winemaking in Italy. She treated the lack of experience as no obstacle: she was willing to work and learn, and the range of destinations was part of the appeal. Costa Rica was the destination Lara Jean understood her to be considering, but the plan remained open-ended rather than fixed.

That openness becomes decisive when Chris visits the Covey home shortly before Dan’s wedding. She says she is leaving the next day for the Dominican Republic because a spot has opened at an eco-hotel and she cannot pass it up. She checks whether Spanish is spoken there, and Lara Jean confirms that it is. Chris’s question connects the new destination to her earlier interest in going wherever opportunity might take her, while the sudden change from Costa Rica shows that the destination is less important to her than the chance to go.

Departure and uncertain return

The timing surprises Lara Jean, who had expected Chris to leave in August rather than immediately. When Lara Jean asks when she will come back, Chris cannot give a date; she might stay for six months, or another opportunity might take her somewhere else. She corrects the suggestion that she is leaving for good, but offers only “Not for good. Just for now.” The distinction leaves the future formally open even as her departure becomes real.

Lara Jean privately senses that Chris will not return a year later to attend Piedmont Virginia Community College, the community-college route Lara Jean had assumed Chris might take. She imagines Chris instead as a stray cat who comes and goes on her own terms, always landing on her feet. The Dominican Republic is therefore not simply a place Chris visits: it marks a break with the settled local future Lara Jean had pictured for her, without establishing where Chris will go next.

Friendship and divergent futures

Chris tells Lara Jean not to look sad and says she will be fine without her because she has Kavinsky. Hearing Peter’s name wounds Lara Jean, who does not tell Chris that she and Peter have broken up. She keeps the conversation focused on Chris’s departure and exciting future, then asks whether she can help her pack. The scene makes the destination part of a more intimate separation: Chris is leaving for an adventure, while Lara Jean is concealing a loss of her own.

The Dominican Republic also embodies the novel’s contrast between young people reaching adulthood on different schedules. Chris is glad not to be left behind in the life she associates with staying local, attending community college, and working at Applebee’s; Lara Jean, by contrast, is preparing for college and trying to absorb changes in family and romance. Chris’s destination remains uncertain, but her willingness to follow an opening wherever it leads makes departure itself an expression of freedom and self-direction.