Esperanza

On Wednesday (September 21th), after a long and exhausting day at school, because it was our "Physics..." who knows what...the last period, our Literature teacher, Miss Kelsey, red out loud to the class several "master" pieces of her blog. They were so good and so well-written, to be honest. Of course they were well-written, who am I kidding? She is a 'LITERATURE' teacher, she reads a lot, and yeah…she reads a lot, she has extra super fluent English. But anyway, that's not my point. My point is that she gave me a lot of ideas and made my brain work like a freaking crazy machine, for real (so she did with Camila, my best friend. She had so many flashbacks when she was a little annoying kid and how she made her little brother drink something to make him run faster). I had a storm of ideas inside my head, or the so called "brain storm".

About two days later, on Wednesday the 22nd, after I did two hours of cycling, I was doing my 'cardio' and thinking what should I write for my next post. I wanted it to be something different. I thought about writing about my parents since I love them and I always say they're my best friends and how our relationship is, and etc. Or also, I thought about my turtles, Trevor and Navi which are so special for me and are like my babies. But suddenly, someone very special popped into my mind. She is one of the cutest and strongest persons I have ever met. Her name is Esperanza (it means 'Hope' in spanish), I call her Esperanzita, though. She is an angel; I have always said that because she is such a good and big hearted person.

Well, the thing is...she works at my school as a 'service woman'. Last year, I used to see her more often since she was working in secondary school, now she works in primary school. I still go to see her sometimes, though.

Last year, when she still worked in secondary school, I was with my friend Mariela in class talking silly thinks. Suddenly we saw that Esperanzita was crying and the teachers were hugging her and etc. I still remember that feeling I got when I saw her crying. It was so heartbreaking. Anyway, we went outside, not that we wanted to loose time and be nosy or something, we were really worried.

We asked permission to go outside to Miss Ana Maria, my Spanish teacher. The first thing we did was hug her while the teachers were telling her that everything was going to be okay. We did not know what was happening. So when we got inside the class again, Miss Ana Maria told us that her family was killed at their house, including her grandson or granddaughter, I do not remember very well. I was so gutted about the situation, it was unbelievable. What kind of 'coward monsters' could do that?

When I got home, I decided to write her a letter. I remember I was so inspired at that moment. I wanted to mark a smile on her face and make her feel, at least, a little bit better. I can not remember what I wrote; I just remember a part where it said that she was 'one in sixty bazillions', because she was the kind of person who inspired people to be stronger. Not with those words, but it was something like that.

Next day, she did not go to school, so I gave the letter to Miss Annybeth, my English teacher, the letter so she could put it with the other things that were going to be given to Esperanzita. I do not why on earth, to be quite honest, a lot of teachers red tmy letter and they told me that it made some of them cry (pretty dramatic, huh?). Next day, I finally saw her, so I ran to her and gave her a "bear hug". She smiled and thanked me for the letter. She told me that it made her cry, a good cry though, because it showed that I cared about her. And it is true, I do care about her.

This year I have not seen her a lot, but every time I see her I always hug her. Now that we only have three weeks left, I won’t see her for more or less three months. I will miss her a lot. But I have her number, so I will call her whenever I have the chance to.

PS.

If you ever see someone without a smile, give him or her yours. You will make them feel better. J

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

 (This is not for my literature project. I just thought it would be good to share this with you, readers.Gifted Hands Movie Trailer)

Our skin color, culture, religion, age, sexuality, and sex do not define who we are in this world. In fact, the things that define who we are are our dreams, mistakes, and goals. The things we want to reach and achieve while we are standing on this world. The mistakes that teach us about this life we are living. That is basically what define and form our future and make us successful. What would be our life without having at least one goal? What would be living for? What would be our purpose in this world? How would we learn without making mistakes? Just the fact of having the desire to reach something, does not matter what it is, no matter if it is the simplest thing in this world, that will be a goal. It does not matter how we were when we were kids, or how we did in high school, or how many mistakes we did (making mistakes is something that all the humans beings do, it is part of life). The movie “Gifted Hands” taught me all of these things. Ben Carson is a humongous role model, a inspiration for every single person, and the “human proof” that we, humans, have a great mind and can reach whatever we want no matter what. 

Someone I miss.

So, tonight I am going to talk/write about the most important person I miss.

I do not want this post to be sad, tragic, emotional, or whatever, since I do not feel any sad feeling writing about this. I totally feel proud that I can write about my grandma’.

I am going to start with my grandma’, Ethel (dad’s mom). I do not even know where I should start, to be quite honest. She was a happy, amazing, funny, special, confident, brave woman. She was my "one in a million". I have always said that she was my best friend; we had so much in common, she even knew things that not even my friends would ever know about me. She gave me my favorite teddy, she taught me the best lessons, and she gave me confidence and strength. When I was little I called her everyday and talked about silly things with her for hours, or at least that is what my mom always says. Seriously, what would a five year-old would talk with a grown up? We could say she was a great listener. And even though she is not here with me anymore, in some way, I can feel her. I know she is always with me supporting me like she did when she was here. I have so many memories with her, memories that I will never forget. I would do anything just to spend at least five minutes with her again, just to give her a big hug.

Here comes the “sad” part…

One day, my brother had an accident, so we had to go to the hospital and spend the whole day there, so I asked my dad if we could go and visit his parents. Their house was like four blocks away from the hospital, so we decided to walk to their home with my dog, and my mom stood in the hospital with my brother. I remember that that day we were talking about music, how I dealing with school, and of course we talked about our lives, her anecdotes, and how she was “slapping diabetes on the face”. We were walking in her big garden. After spending more or less three hours with her, my mom called us and said that we should go to the hospital to see my brother. When we were leaving, I remember we were calling my dog; she did not want to leave. She wanted to stay there with my grandma’. I had to run after my dog, because we really needed to go. My dad and I were surprised about that, so while we were talking about how weird was that my dog did not want to leave. Before going to the hospital we went to McDonald’s to eat something, we were starving and of course, we would not eat hospital food.

We got to the hospital and waited for my brother and mom so we could finally go home. When I got home, my friends were waiting for me so we could talk like we always did so I stayed there with them. Like five minutes after we arrived home, my dad received a call from my aunt. My dad looked out the window to call me, he sounded so grumpy so I went up the stairs to his room and my mom and her best friend were there. They did not know what was going on until my dad told me with a sad voice “Your nanny had a heart attack.” I could not even believe it, I was with her one hour before this happened. I ran to my friend’s house and told her what was happening. I remember I was crying like a baby. Anyway, I had to go to my other nanny’s home, because my parents had to go to see everything about the funeral and stuff. I could not stop crying that day, it hit me hard. I did not expect that. She was fine when I was with her, she looked so good. She did not even look sick.

Next day at the funeral, I was with my dad. We cried together like babies. It was weird to see my dad crying, since the last time I saw him crying was when the doctor told him that he had serious heart problems. He told me that my grandma’ would not like to see us cry, that she would always be there with us; the only difference would be that we would not be able to see her. I knew that crying would not bring her back, and my dad was right, she would not like to see us sad. I tried not to cry, I really did, but it would be so weird not having her in my life. And to be honest, I still cry for her, and I can not help it.

I feel really lucky to say that she was my grandma’, though. I feel lucky to say I have Ethel in my life. I feel proud every time I say she was my best friend. And I know she is watching me from wherever she is at. I know she is here with me, looking at what I am writing and saying “Why are you still crying for me? You better smile or I will hit you.” Or something like that (hahaha). She is my role model. Because of her I want to travel all over the world like she did. I wish I could thank I wish I could thank all she did for me and say "I love you" one last time. I think I'll have to wait, though.

So now I just have two things to say. First, appreciate everyone and everything you have, because you never know when the chapter ends. And yes, everything lasts forever, but only in heart and mind.  So be thankful of what you have, peeps. Second, enjoy every second you spend with someone special, even if it is boring, because at some point of your life, the only thing you will have with the other person will be memories.

First Impressions VS. The Relationship That Comes After

So basically, today I am going to talk about first impressions.

I seriously do not know if we should take the first impression as the one that counts, because we are humans and we tend to screw things up a lot. Plus, I believe in second chances. I am not saying everyone deserves a second chance, because there are people that just do not deserve it, for real. The ones who do not deserve it are the ones who screw things big time. You know, the ones you know that they are just “URGHH”.

But what can I say? First impressions are not always important. I think that the relationship that comes after first impressions are more important. Or at least, that is just my own opinion.

I am sure that all of us have had the worst or the best “first impression” of someone, but then with the second, third, or maybe fourth impression we have convinced ourselves that that person is not what we thought at first.

I will tell you an anecdote just to prove you my point.

When I was in 6^th grade, we had this new English teacher. The first impression we had about her was neither good, nor bad, but it was more negative than positive. We did not like her because she was so strict and different, I guess. She looked so angry and not friendly, at all. And, to be honest, we did not appreciate the fact that she was our teacher.

I still remember one day she could not go to school because something terrible happened (I can not say what happened, of course). It was not something to be happy about it, but just the fact that she did not go to school was so comforting (and now that I am writing this and remembering this I feel awful).

After we started to know her, everything changed. We realized she was actually amazing and one of the best teachers we have ever had.

She was lovely, positive, hilarious, trustable, and so energetic. She showed us she cared about us. She was always there whenever we needed help. She just wanted the best for us, her students. She was kind of our “school mom”, if you want to put it in that way. It was funny the fact that she even became one of my “friends”. This sounds weird, but in some way she was a good friend, because she always listened and gave good advices, plus she never failed at making us smile.

She taught us not only English, she taught us a lot about life as well. She was the kind of teacher that wanted us to appreciate everything our parents did to pay our studies. She wanted us to appreciate everything that life gave us and to take every situation with a smile and say - “bring it on, because I can handle this”. For her, it did not matter if the situation was a good one or a bad one, she always said we had to be strong and move on. She never fed up of giving us that type of speeches.

I will never forget that she always said that every act and decision had its consequences. If it was a good act or a good decision, we would have good consequences, but if it was a wrong act or the wrong decision, we would have bad consequences. But anyway we had to accept them. She really took this, seriously. Everyday she reminded us the whole thing about the consequences. For me it was good, because she was right. She had her point.

I wish I could tell you everything she taught us, but I would never finish. But the main things were:

• Appreciate everything we have
• Accept the consequences of our own acts
• Being responsible
• Study hard for our future
• Being independent, and
• Not to take things for granted.

Now, I really miss her. I really miss her motivating speeches. I miss our inside jokes, like saying “GUATEVER” (that was epic). I think she is one of the best role models on this planet.

The ones who know or have ever had the chance to meet her or talk to her are very lucky, trust me. I know every single person will learn something from her. The three years I had the chance to spend time with her I did not learn just one thing from her, I learned a billion of things.

I just really hope I can see her again!

So yeah, this is my story. Now take a moment and ask to yourself…

Do first impressions really matter? Or is the relationship that comes after the one that counts?

Thanks for reading my blog guys. I will write more next week! Keep an eye on this!

(It is my first post, so be nice with me).




P.S
My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone (victims, families, etc) affected by the awful event of 9/11.

Starting my Literature Project! Pretty excited :D

Today I am starting this blog, so do not expect too much from this. I am doing it for my literature project which is pretty interesting. We will see how it goes! Wish me luck guys!