Monday, April 15, 2002
Something about courage
I have always been very adventurous and courageous. That fact brought me many troubles when I was younger. I was never willing to give up on anything I wanted to do or I had set my mind on. And those things weren’t always of my father’s will. Thankfully my mother was always backing me up and encouraging me to do whatever I wanted within certain limits. As she use to say, “I do what my mother did for me.”
When she was young, in the 60’s, she wanted to travel to North America by herself. This is something that seems simple nowadays, but was a big deal for women back then. She had her fights with my grandfather and finally left for North America in 1968. She learned English, got a job in New Jersey, met my father, got married, had a baby, me, and returned with her new family to Argentina in 1972. She has many stories about those times. I have heard those stories since I was a little girl. They inspired me and I dreamt to grow up and make my own journey. I wanted to have my own stories to tell to my children one day.
My mother has always encouraged me and my sisters to follow our dreams, to find our way and meanings on life. She is not a feminist but she just believes in equality and having the same opportunities that everybody else has. She has taught us to act responsibly, but freely in the search of our destiny.
In early 1998, I decided to move to Brazil. I packed a few clothes and a lot of pictures and arrived in Sao Paulo with nothing more than a lot of courage. It was hard and the toughest times of my life. I needed a place to live and I needed to learn the language in order to get a job. I made it and in a year I was working as a Software Consultant and traveling all over Brazil. After two years I didn’t feel like I had reached the bottom of my dreams; I didn’t feel I had all the stories I wanted, so in November of 1999 I packed again my same old clothes and pictures, and maybe a few more pictures, and came to North America; I was at last at the country of my mother’s stories and at my country too: after all I was born in New Jersey.
I went to New Jersey to see the city that I have seen on pictures so many times and I went to New York and Boston, all cities that my parents visited when they were in America. I took my own pictures of the old places. Then I got a job, met my husband, got married and … here I am. I’ve walked my mother’s story, or at least most part of it. My husband and I are planning on having a baby soon. And I am already rehearsing the stories I’m going to tell them, and looking at the pictures I’m going to show them.
I’m proud of the women of my family, of my mother, of my grandmother and I’m lucky because they understand the need of finding our own stories, they understand the meaning of supporting and encouraging our dreams. I hope I have a girl to continue the story.
I have always been very adventurous and courageous. That fact brought me many troubles when I was younger. I was never willing to give up on anything I wanted to do or I had set my mind on. And those things weren’t always of my father’s will. Thankfully my mother was always backing me up and encouraging me to do whatever I wanted within certain limits. As she use to say, “I do what my mother did for me.”
When she was young, in the 60’s, she wanted to travel to North America by herself. This is something that seems simple nowadays, but was a big deal for women back then. She had her fights with my grandfather and finally left for North America in 1968. She learned English, got a job in New Jersey, met my father, got married, had a baby, me, and returned with her new family to Argentina in 1972. She has many stories about those times. I have heard those stories since I was a little girl. They inspired me and I dreamt to grow up and make my own journey. I wanted to have my own stories to tell to my children one day.
My mother has always encouraged me and my sisters to follow our dreams, to find our way and meanings on life. She is not a feminist but she just believes in equality and having the same opportunities that everybody else has. She has taught us to act responsibly, but freely in the search of our destiny.
In early 1998, I decided to move to Brazil. I packed a few clothes and a lot of pictures and arrived in Sao Paulo with nothing more than a lot of courage. It was hard and the toughest times of my life. I needed a place to live and I needed to learn the language in order to get a job. I made it and in a year I was working as a Software Consultant and traveling all over Brazil. After two years I didn’t feel like I had reached the bottom of my dreams; I didn’t feel I had all the stories I wanted, so in November of 1999 I packed again my same old clothes and pictures, and maybe a few more pictures, and came to North America; I was at last at the country of my mother’s stories and at my country too: after all I was born in New Jersey.
I went to New Jersey to see the city that I have seen on pictures so many times and I went to New York and Boston, all cities that my parents visited when they were in America. I took my own pictures of the old places. Then I got a job, met my husband, got married and … here I am. I’ve walked my mother’s story, or at least most part of it. My husband and I are planning on having a baby soon. And I am already rehearsing the stories I’m going to tell them, and looking at the pictures I’m going to show them.
I’m proud of the women of my family, of my mother, of my grandmother and I’m lucky because they understand the need of finding our own stories, they understand the meaning of supporting and encouraging our dreams. I hope I have a girl to continue the story.
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