December 25th, merry Christmas! My break has been really good and relaxing sofar. I flew from Pittsburgh to Jacksonville on the 16th to stay with my brother, but I keep thinking of what happened when I was at the airport that day.
When I was reading a book while waiting for my flight to Atlanta, I noticed that a very old lady in the wheelchair had dropped her bottle of water on the floor, right underneath her butt, where she couldn’t reach it nor see where it was. I said "Heey, I gotchaaa, don’tworry!!" and gave her the bottle back. She then looked at me trying to say something. I guess I made her repeat herself a couple times until I finally got that she was actually saying "bathroom bathroom bathroom!!" I said "BATHROOM! Let’s go to the bathroom," so I pushed her wheelchair tothe first bathroom I found and then we came back to the gate, where we were before. Right after I grabbed my book to finish reading it, one of the guys working by the front desk of the gate came to me and said "hey, I really appreciate that you took that old lady to the bathroom. Can I see your tickets for a second, please?" When he gave my tickets back, I looked at it and: 4B,f irst class! Haha. Free glasses of wine, more room for my legs, a pillow and a blanket: CHECK! But in all seriousness, that reminded of how awesome it is todo good to others. It certainly makes us feel great for being able to help someone out or to at least make someone’s life easier whenever possible. I like the idea that “when you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own,” and that this world would be a better one if it was filled with kindness and people who care about one another.
Anyway, after arriving at my final destination, my brother and I (and his friend Geovanne) spent the next couple days either going to the beach, visiting downtown, shopping, watching movies, going to the pool or sleeping a lot. Not bad at all! Also, I am glad I had the chance to meet Geovanne and to hear a little bit about his life story. He was born in the state of Goias, in Brazil, and was raised in a not so developed area of the city, having to work at a really young age in the farm where he used to live at with his family. Access to proper education and support from his parents were not so present during his childhood, forcing him to almost always have to manage his life and make decisions by himself. His family did not have enough money to pay for a private university, so he studied hard and got accepted into a public one (in Brazil, public universities are usually the best ones and you don’t pay for it, so you can imagine how competitive the selection process is). After completing 4 years of college (his major is civil engineering. Not sure what is the length of the program in the U.S, but in Our country, it usually takes around 5 or 6 years), and thanks to his willingness to learn English by his own, Geovanne was later accepted into the so-called “Ciencias sem Froteiras” (science without borders). This is a program created by the president of the country to provide full scholarships for certain students to go to a different country for up to an year in order to acquire a more global perspective of thew orkforce, to enhance their language skills of the chosen country, to learn abouta different culture, etc. He told me that neither his family nor even himself could have ever imagined to be given such an amazing opportunity, and now he is here, just getting ready for spring semester. It is funny to see how much confidence he has gained by this whole experience. He was talkingto me and saying: “You know, I came from the very bottom and made my way to the top. I talk to my friends from back home, and they are still living that same life, talking about the same things, but I feel like I have grown so much as a person after coming here. Here I am completely responsible for my actions and, when it comes to the classes I am taking, my presentations are simply great, and grades are higher than what I expected (whilealso saying how funny it is to see his American classmates getting “mad” at himwhenever he gets a better grade on a test or assignment!). I know I will goback home way more mature and ready and able to conquer whatever I want to, youknow what I mean, Isabella?!” “YES! I know EXACTLY what you mean,” I told him.It is that feeling that you can do everything, that you can overcome all theobstacles along the way or achieve anything in life. Perhaps we won’t, but itis to have that feeling that matters the most. And his beautiful life story hasproved me that everything is possible. “If you want something in life, reachout and grab it,” as I read once, somewhere.
Geovanne is now in NY for a couple days, and Yuri, my cousin,came from Iowa to spend the rest of break with us. Yesterday we decided to go to the mallin the afternoon to buy stuff to cook and some shit to drink for Christmas Eve.When we got back it was already 9pm (midnight in Brazil), so we Skyped all thefamily and kept talking to them for a while. I don’t know, it is not the firstChristmas day away from my family, but I guess I will always think that it is weird not being with them on this day. When I was younger, Christmas waspretty much the best day of the year. The only day when each member of thefamily would get together (driving long distances never seemed to be a concernon this day!), cook tons of the best types of food in the world, catch up oneach other’s lives and laugh and make jokes and exchange presents and etc.! Itmakes me smile only by remembering those moments while I write :)
Well, thistime it was not like that, so we had to make the most out of what we had at the time. Good food (which really impressed me, since our cooking abilities arecertainly not one of our best traits haha), great company and drinks. Today weare here, doing absolutely nothing for the whole day! Tomorrow we are taking thebus to go to Orlando and staying at a friend’s house until the 28th,when my parents finally arrive! Just can’t wait. I hope to write about the tripas soon as I get back to school for my very last semester of college (:O).
xoxo
Isa
No comments:
Post a Comment