Building the path on the basis of decisions

When at the age of 11 years old you are given the choice of which junior high school you want to go to, the one where all your friends from school go or the one with the best teachers, but there is not a single person you know, it seems like an easy decision, doesn't it?

Well, I've always been a bit stubborn, some would say it's because of my zodiac sign 😂 Taurus, and it seems to be a very distinctive feature of my character, which has been both a virtue and a defect. I chose to go to a school with better teachers.

My parents, very rarely, do I remember them imposing anything on me regarding my studies. My mom says that I was a very judicious child 😂 and that's why they let me decide so that I could learn from my own mistakes as well.

I was not a very social person, but I was not rude either, so the first day of school I already had a new group of new friends 😂, with the good fortune that weeks later several of my old friends, whom I knew since I was 5 years old, changed to my school as well.

During the 3 years of that level of education in Cuba, my closest group of friends were Jorge, Liliam, and Yaima and a new moment of decision came: high school. At that time, this level, necessary to continue to university, could only be acquired by studying in the ¨Becas¨, which are schools in rural areas of the country with a boarding school system or a school (a single one!) that was external, very close to my house, but that was for boys with ¨enfermedades¨ (I put it in parentheses because there were also daddy's little boys who did not want to get a scholarship).

I was always very much a homebody, I didn't go out to parties or have boyfriends hahahahah so getting a scholarship was a huge step for me. My cousins bet that if I got a scholarship I wouldn't last a week. wrong! Ajajajaj nothing better than a challenge ahead 😜. Peeeeero, once again my high school friends wanted to go on a scholarship, I wanted to go on another 😳 so I had to face again with 14 years old a 24/7 cohabitation with strangers far away from my home.

The first photo was taken the day of my 15th birthday (in the first year of high school), as I remember that that week we had a final test of History and I could not go home .

Almost at the end of the third year, a new opportunity presented itself to a group of us. Some of us with the best records could opt to choose the university career we wanted in exchange for teaching for 5 years in an elementary school. (... in the beginning, this plan required a lot of requirements and we accessed a few of my pre-university and some of the best records, others including the one from Exact Sciences known as "La Lenin").

This change implied leaving my friends again, this time it hurt much more, Osmar sat next to me in classes and had a horrible character 🤣, but that gave me grace, and Neka and Yasmely because our beds were barely separated by a 1-meter distance. So it was very difficult.

The interesting thing: in the new pre I coincided again with Jorge!!!! My friend from high school 😂 who was a brainiac in his pre had also been chosen. Those months were very intense, because of the preparation, we used to get up at 5:30 am and the sleeping schedule didn't start until 11:00 pm. I also remember the word dictations they made us do, they were endless and very very difficult and the grade you got depended on when we could go home to be two days for every 15 days in school.

Then came the choice of career, I was undecided between History or Communication, but in the end, I opted for the latter, as I found the Communication processes that happened in companies extremely interesting. This time, several of my friends also chose the same career as to me! Finally 😂

... And well, with Jorge, I even ended up working, since we coincided in the school that would be our turn to teach grades one through four. But, my experience during 5 years as a teacher I will tell you about it another day because it is something very beautiful that I carry in my memory and deserves a separate post.

For the moment I leave it here, and when I look back I think of the many times I could have taken another path, one that would have kept me in my comfort zone with my acquaintances, with what was safe, but I chose to step out of the box.

So, by way of teaching ( professional deformation 😜) do not be afraid to face new situations that involve a departure from your comfort zone, but, on the contrary. Take it as a personal challenge to achieve, a small goal in life.

This one often puts us in front of forks in the road and some paths are scarier than others, but be brave and demand from yourself that extra that is needed. That you made a mistake, ok, remember that:

"The only man who makes no mistakes is the one who never does anything". (Goethe)