The Ring

Nine months ago, I made a deal with my life. It was time to be international. My English had always made me unhappy. It was the only barrier in my way from the world that was waiting to be discovered. To not know English is to not know the world. I thought if I could learn English, I would discover the world. I would discover my inner world. The only thing that needed to be done was to pack my suitcase. This was the challenge of my life.

I’ve been an international person for 6.5 months. Although everything had been planned, I had made the wrong choice about where to stay in Houston. I had trusted the wrong people, and peace could not find me. So, I decided to find it. I needed to make a new deal because life was teaching again. If you want to change your life and remove your barriers, you have to plan each detail very well. This was the beginning of the change in my inner world. To lose trust and money has made me more powerful. I have an idea about how people feel when they don’t know the place where they wake up and where they sleep. I have an idea about being homeless. I became a better person. Then a new period began, I enjoy helping people. The easiest way to learn a new language is to blend in with that culture and I have had enough time to learn the American culture. I have begun to work as a volunteer in a garden. This is more than to learn the names of fruit and vegetables, I have also learned to how to help people that I have never met, and how it makes me feel very happy. This gave me much peace and my nickname butterfly.

My beginning was not very nice. But negative things have caused positive things. If you really make this point of view, your life becomes easier. I have done!

My favorite movie is The Lord of the Rings. This movie shows us, we have a talent from the birth to catch our goals. The only thing that we have to know is how to use it. Frodo has a ring on his neck. His goal is to take the ring to the right place. He has some ups and downs in this mission. I had had a ring on my neck.

Before I came here, I was a person who could not sleep without her mother. Now I can sleep alone. I have learned how to be careful spending money or how to cook like my mother. I have been learning how to survive, despite of all of my downs. I have realized my talents. I’ve been collecting lots of things; friendships, experiences, lots of love and proud… I will bring back all of them to my country, and keep them my whole life.

Being an international is a little different, being a stranger or a tourist in another country. If you live in another country for a while and meet people around the world, share your life, sadness, lameness, happiness with these people you become international. Now I have a home in Brazil, Colombia, Russia, Mexico, Taiwan, Korea, Switzerland. All of my friends have a home in Turkey, as well.

Today classes have been finished. I don’t like these words: ‘goodbye’, ‘farewell’. I prefer to say, ‘see you another time’. There is always another time, and every another time is a new beginning. This is a circle. I am inside the circle.

Today I got rid off my ring.
And have I said before; all of them have happened by an overnight decision.

Thanks Natalia Laverde for the butterfly picture.