Every week from January on, Graciela and I would meet to chat in English and put essays together about different topics that might come up in her oral exam. The topics were personal values, society, the natural environment, unexplained phenomena, public figures, the working world and a topic of her choice (Yes!! I remembered all of them!). Putting these personal essays together, we talked about jobs, our respective homelands, our hobbies, and our musical tastes. In one of my favorite classes, we worked on an essay about R&B queen Beyoncé Knowles. Not even my idea, I swear!
Graciela and I laughed so hard together on a lot of occasions, sometimes uncontrollably. On one occasion, I was trying to explain the difference between "take something out" and "leave something out," and my Spanish translation may have come off a bit suggestive. Word for word, I said something along the lines of "one means take it out, and one means don't put it in." It hit me later why that might've been something to laugh at.
I had so much fun hanging out with her once a week, and she taught me something important by example. Graciela is a P.E. teacher and also makes time to perform as a singer, dancer, and actress (and, of course, study English). She told me with such firm conviction that she could never just do one thing with her time. What a novel idea!
The example she sets really resonates with me, as do those of a good number of my friends and older mentors out here! Because there are things that I want to do in my life apart what I do to make money. I want to go to Asia. I want to get better at making videos and taking pictures. Maybe I'll take a dance class one day to learn how to move my arms and legs simultaneously. Who knows? I think getting to know Graciela and some teacher friends at my school has influenced my ever-evolving answer to that "how do I want to spend my time in this life?" question. It will be super important for me to enjoy my career, but of course that's not the only way I'll spend my time.
Sunday brought the news that Graciela passed Saturday's exam, which means she can now teach at a bilingual school like the one I work at! So in honor of this renaissance woman and all-around badass, please enjoy this video of her doing her thang:
Congrats, Graciela! Thanks for the memories and the wisdom!
